I confess that it brought tears to my heart. I confess that I find it difficult to think about what happened to Eleni Gatzoyiannis and her family without finding a lump in my throat. It was at Igoumenitsa that they learned of their mothers death. Her son Nicolas - the author of the story - finally traveled before leaving Greece for America. It was to Igoumenitsa, via Ioannina, that Eleni's children, including A coincidence almost as haunting as this magnificent story. Shortly before boarding a coach bound for Ioannina, on the border with Albania in northern Greece, en route to Patra and a ferry to Igoumentisa.
Previewer Note: I first read this book and started this review several months ago. And one, until it was too late, was beyond her reach. Because she would not seek her own safety and leave without every single one of Above all, again to my mind, she was murdered by an Elas kangeroo court held in her own village before her own neighbours. The first page of this book is a full page photograph, taken in 1946, of Eleni Gatzoyiannis, her children - Nikola (Nicolas Gage) his sisters Kanta Glykeria Olga Fotini and Eleni's sister 'Aunt Nitsa.' When I started reading the book it was a useful reference - by the end I wanted to hang it on my wall so that I would not forget this story.Įleni Gatzoyiannis died, to my mind, because of many things - a conspiracy of fear jealousy hatred selfishness intransigence politics the Greek Civil War itself.
But, unless you have no feelings, it could haunt you forever. It reveals the Greek psych as nothing I have ever read. This is his true story of a son seeking to avenge his mothers murder. It was to divide his family and, in the end, result in the torture and death of his mother, Eleni Gatzoyiannis at the hands of ELAS Guerillas for the 'crime' of helping her children escape. Nicolas Gage was born in the mountain village of Lia, northern Greece, close to the border with Albania, in 1938, shortly before the onset of WWII and in Greece, the following Civil War, which was to prove far more destructive to that Nation, tearing both Greece and Greeks apart for it's endurance.
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