Those Who Are Loved

Those Who Are Loved cover imageThe #1 Sunday Times Bestseller

Those Who Are Loved is set against the backdrop of the German occupation of Greece, the subsequent civil war and a military dictatorship, all of which left deep scars.

Themis is part of a family bitterly divided by politics and, as a young woman, her fury with those who have collaborated with the Nazis, drives her to fight for the communists.  She is eventually imprisoned on the notorious islands of exile, Makronisos and Trikeri, and has to make a life or death decision. She is proud of having fought, but for the rest of her life is haunted by some of her actions. Forty years after the end of the civil war, she finally achieves catharsis.

Victoria Hislop sheds light on the complexity of Greece’s traumatic past and weaves it into the dynamic tale of a woman who is both hero and villain, and her lifelong fight for justice.

“Those Who Are Loved has been germinating for a decade now, from the moment I first saw the island of Makronisos from the Greek mainland.  I was told it was uninhabited, but had been a prison camp for communists.  The discovery compelled me to read about the Greek civil war (in which many women played a role), but of course it also meant researching the events that led to that conflict as well as the long-term after-effects that are still seen in Greece even today.  Everyone knows how much I love Greece, but exploring this story has taken me to some new and disquieting places.” – Victoria Hislop

Those Who are Loved will be published on May 30

 

Suggested Reading

Those Who Are Loved  is a work of fiction, but one rooted in historical events. The books is inspired and informed by a wide range of books: non-fiction accounts, histories, and memoirs, by a broad range of writers. Some suggested books for anyone who wants to delve further into the background history of my novel can be found below:

  • The Social Organisation of Exile by Margaret Kenna
  • A Pacificist’s Life and Death by Evi Gkotzaridis
  • Eleni by Nicholas Gage
  • Hellas a Portrait of Greece by Nicholas Gage
  • A Piece of Truth by Amalia Fleming
  • The Fall of Athens by Gail Holst-Warhaft
  • Inside the Colonel’s Greece by Anonymous (trans Richard Clogg)
  • After the War was Over by Mark Mazower
  • Dangerous Citizens by Neni Panourgia
  • Becoming a Subject by Polymeris Voglis
  • Children of the Civil War (Danforth and Boeschoten editors)
  • New Voices in the Nation – Women and the Greek Resistance 1941-64 by Janet Hart
  • Greece: From Resistance to Civil War ed Marion Sarafis
  • Metaxas Jugend – A picture album of the Greek Fascist Youth EON
  • Greek Women in Resistance by Eleni Fourtouni
  • The Flight of Ikaros – Travels in Greece during the Civil War by Kevin Andrews
  • The Diary of the Execution 13 December 1943 – Municipal Museum of the Kalavryta Holocaust
  • Diaries of Exile by Yannis Ritsos
  • Epitafios by Yannis Ritsos
  • A House for our Heroes – An Attempt to approach the Tragedy of Kalavryta
  • Greece: The decade of war by David Brewer
  • Mussolini’s Greek Island by Sheila Lecoeur
  • Occupation and Resistance by Hondros
  • The Abducted Greek Children of the Communists: Paidomazoma by Karavasilis
  • The Greek Civil War (ed Gelis)
  • Greece at the Crossroads – the Civil War and its Legacy (ed Iatrides and Wrigley)
  • The Nuremberg Trials – The Nazis brought to justice by Alexander Macdonald
  • The Greek Tragedy by Constantine Tsoucalas
  • A Measure of Understanding by Queen Frederica
  • A concise history of Greece by  Richard Clogg
  • Children of the Greek Civil War : Loring M Danforth
  • Greece, the decade of war : David Brewer
  • The struggle for Greece, 1941-1949  by C. M. Woodhouse
  • The story of modern Greece by C. M. Woodhouse
  • An international civil war : by André Gerolymatos
  • The Greek Civil War, 1944-1949  by Edgar O’Ballance
  • It’s all Greek to me  by Richard Clogg.
  • Athens : by Michael Llewellyn Smith
  • The Nuremberg trial  by Ann Tusa
  • The rise of Christian Democracy in Europe by Stathis Kalyvas
  • The logic of violence in civil war by Stathis Kalyvas
  • Inside Hitler’s Greece : Mark Mazower
  • The Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the origins of international criminal law by Kevin Jon Heller
  • Friends and heroes by Olivia Manning
  • Anglo-Greek attitudes by Richard Clogg
  • Anatolica The Greek diaspora in the twentieth century  by Richard Clogg
  • Xenia – a memoir : Mary Henderson
  • A bridge of people  by Ben Whitaker
  • Guerrilla warfare and espionage in Greece 1940-1944  by André Gerolymatos.
  • British policy towards Greece during the Second World War, 1941-1944  by Procopis Papastratis
  • Allen Dulles, the OSS, and Nazi war criminals by Kerstin von Lingen
  • Famine and death in occupied Greece, 1941-1944 by Violetta Hionidou, .
  • Nazi Germany and Southern Europe, 1933-45 :
  • Frederica, Queen of the Hellenes by Lilika S Papanicolaou
  • A fringe of blue  by Joice NanKivell Loch, .
  • The divided land by Geoffrey Chandler
  • Peacemakers by Margaret MacMillan
  • Nazi Germany and Southern Europe, 1933-45 :
  • Democracy by Paul Cartledge
  • Eleni, or nobody by Rhea Galanaki (translated by David Connolly)
  • Theologies of ancient Greek religion (Cambridge Classical Studies)
  • Welcome to the poisoned chalice by James K Galbraith
  • The Greek myths by  Robert Graves.
  • The Greek Orthodox Church  by Constantine Callinicos
  • Post-Byzantium: The Greek Renaissance by Vyzantino Mouseio
  •  Revolt in Athens  by John O. Iatrides