Victoria Hislop

Week after week, the postcards arrive, addressed to a name Ellie does not know, with no return address, each signed with an initial: A. With their bright skies, blue seas and alluring images of Greece, these cartes postales brighten her life. After six months, to her disappointment, they cease. But the montage she has created on the wall of her flat has cast a spell. She must see this country for herself. On the morning Ellie leaves for Athens, a...

Ten short stories by the million-copy bestselling author of 'The Island' and 'The Return'.

Thessaloniki, 1917. As Dimitri Komninos is born, a fire sweeps through the city, the first of many catastrophic events. Five years later, young Katerina escapes to Greece when her home is destroyed by the Turkish Army. Soon their lives become entwined.

Athens 1941. After decades of political uncertainty, Greece is polarised between Right- and Left-wing views when the Germans invade. Fifteen-year-old Themis comes from a family divided by these political differences. The Nazi occupation deepens the fault-lines between those she loves just as it reduces Greece to destitution. She watches friends die in the ensuing famine and is moved to commit acts of resistance. In the civil war that follows the end...

The absorbing story of the Cretan village of Plaka and the tiny, deserted island of Spinalonga - Greece's former leper colony - is told to us by Maria Petrakis, one of the children in the original version of The Island. She tells us of the ancient and misunderstood disease of leprosy, exploring the themes of stigma, shame and the treatment of those who are different, which are as relevant for children as adults. Gill Smith's rich, full-colour illustrations...