Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2012
400 pages
Genre: Historical Fiction
Publication Information
Thessaloniki, Greece, 1917: As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the thriving multicultural city where Christians, Jews, and Muslims live side by side. It is the first of many catastrophic events that will forever change this place and its people. Five years later, as the Turkish army pushes west through Asia Minor, young Katerina loses her mother in the crowd of refugees clambering for boats to Greece. Landing in Thessaloniki's harbor, she is at the mercy of strangers in an unknown city. For the next eighty years, the lives of Dimitri and Katerina will be entwined with each other and - through Nazi occupation, civil war, persecution, and economic collapse - with the story of their homeland.
Thessaloniki, Greece, 2007: A young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents' remarkable story for the first time and understands he has a decision to make. For decades, Dimitri and Katerina have looked after the treasures of those who have been forced from their beloved city. Should he stay and become their new custodian?
Paperback original
"Starred Review. Striking an excellent balance between historicity and impassioned drama, Hislop's newest should not be missed." - Publishers Weekly
"This fast-moving, touching saga about tragedy, recovery, and the real meaning of family is full of dramatic incidents demonstrating the city's transformation and resilience." - Booklist
"A brilliant page turner and destined to become a reading group staple, The Thread is rich with drama and historical detail." - Glamour (UK)
"Sweeping, magnificently detailed and ambitious." - The Sunday Times (UK)
"Fast-paced narrative and utterly convincing sense of place." - Guardian (UK)
"'Fresh, tenacious and rather intrepid." - Independent (UK)
"This is storytelling at its best and, just like a tapestry, when each thread is sewn into place, so emerge the layers and history of relationships past and present." - Sunday Express (UK)
"Her best novel yet." - Scotsman (UK)
This information about The Thread was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Victoria Hislop is the internationally bestselling author of The Island and The Return. She writes travel features for the Sunday Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday, House & Garden, and Woman & Home. She divides her time among rural Kent, London, and Crete. She is married and has two children. Visit her website at www.victoriahislop.com.
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