Fire from Heaven

Finished March 13

Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault

I've had this book on my shelves for a while, but recently reading The Golden Mean, and seeing Lyon mention this book as a recommendation for a different view of the same period drew me to taking it down and reading it. 

This is a book about the younger years of Alexander the Great, told in third person from a variety of viewpoints, including his, and his closest companion's Hephaistion. We see how Alexander grew up close to his mother, encountering Philip less often, and how his training began at a young age, with Aristotle, as he learned alongside other boys his age who were chosen by his father and him. 

We see him become a warrior and participate in a battle where he actively engaged with his opponent. We also see his struggle between his parent's affections and loyalties, and how at one point he withdrew from his father. 

This is a story that is richly detailed, that lets us into the thoughts of many of the characters, but Alexander himself is the main character and it is his life at the center of the story. Because we have access to character's thoughts, they have more depth, and the tone is more emotional at times. 

I enjoyed learning about his life and adventures. The book has a map on the endpapers, but I was sometimes frustrated when places named in the book weren't on the map. 

The Golden Mean

Finished March 2

The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon

This novel is narrated by Aristotle, the real historical figure, and creates a story around his time with Philip of Macedon, mostly taking place at the city of Pella. Philip had known Aristotle when they were both boys, and Aristotle arrives in Pella carrying a message from Hermias, the satrap of Atarneus under whose patronage Aristotle had been living. 

Along with Aristotle and his household, are his wife Pythias and his nephew Callisthenes. Aristotle soon meets Philip's sons, Arrhidaeus and Alexander, and is asked to work with both of them in very different ways. Arrhidaeus suffered an injury early in his life that damaged him, creating learning disabilities. Alexander is the golden child in many senses, spoiled, used to getting his way, and entitled. Aristotle is one of the few people who challenges him, and that creates an interesting dynamic. Aristotle covers many subjects in his teaching, but at the core of them is the idea of balance, the golden mean referenced by the book's title. 

We see Aristotle's personal life, his relationship with his wife, servants, slaves, and his nephew. We also see his inner thoughts about both this personal life and his more public responsibilities. 

Lyon makes her characters come to life, they have personality and flaws, and she has obviously researched the real people she portrays. 

This was her debut novel, and won the Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, as well as being a finalist for the Giller. I found it a compelling read. 

The Doctor of Thessaly

Finished September 10

The Doctor of Thessaly by Anne Zouroudi

This book is the third in 'A Seven Deadly Sins Mystery' series. It begins with a woman grieving what should have been her wedding day. The groom did not show up. It soon appears that there is a reason for that, when he is discovered injured in nearby ruins. But he refuses to see his bride.

A stranger from Athens soon appears in the town, Hermes Diaktoros. He says that he is an investigator, but not with the police, and he never reveals exactly who he works for. 

Hermes is a man who observes and listens and he soon discovers what the people think about the doctor, a man who came from France to fill the need. The old doctor is aging and had taken a step back from things. 

Hermes also learns what people think about Chrissa the woman who was to marry the doctor, and the woman's sister Noula. Hermes listens and watches and puts things together and amasses information he gleans from the people he talks to and the conversations that he overhears. 

He manages to subvert some plans, deal with larger criminal issues, and help the townspeople affected find a new way forward. 

This is a slow moving story, with some interesting plot points around the politics of small town life and reaction to change. 

I quite enjoyed it. 

Cuckoo's Flight

Finished August 1

Cuckoo's Flight by Wendy Orr

This story follows on Swallow's Dance, picking up with the granddaughter of Leira from that story, Clio, who is now at a similar age that Leira was at in the earlier story. Set in the Bronze Age on the island of Crete, Clio's mother and grandmother are potter's. Their communities, and others on the island are threatened by raiders who come to kill and ransack. Clio's father Hector is a sailor and a horseman, and she has shared his love of horses. But recently she had a bad fall and now one of her legs is permanently injured and she can no longer ride her horse Gray Girl. Hector has thought about this and has been building a version of a chariot where Clio can sit and be pulled by her horse, nearly as good as riding her. 

With the threat of raiders more imminent, the decision has been made to send the ships out to trade at the very beginning of the trading season in the hope to gain better goods in return and be back earlier in case of an attack. Clio and Hector have depended on Petros, a goatherd and his family to help look after the horses, which are located near the town but outside its walls. 

Unbeknownst to them, Mika, a young girl from the fisher community has been watching them, aching to do what Clio can with the horses, while her brother Dymos harbours resentment at the townspeople who live better lives than he does. 

As we follow the plot through Dymos actions on his feelings, Mika making herself known to Clio, and the threats on the town, we see both girls grow into their strengths and make themselves vital to the defence of their community. 

There is much here on family and the community working together, whether building defences or fighting the raiders, and an outcome that will change many lives into the future. But the core story is one of the two girls are their passions and worries as they face their destiny. Clio must trust her instincts and do what she can do help her friends, old and new. Mika must dare to break away from her family to go where her heart and duty leads her.

I loved both girls as well as many of the other female characters here from Clio's mother Selena and grandmother Leira to the representative of the goddess, The Lady, and Clio's friend Delia. This book brings history alive and shows how the girl learn new skills and come to believe in their futures with more hope and self-determination.

Swallow's Dance

Finished February 24

Swallow's Dance by Wendy Orr

This middle grade book takes us back to the Bronze Age in the Aegean Sea. As the book begins, an earthquake shakes the small island that Leira and her clan live on. Leira is about to start her initiation as a priestess and her mother is next in line to become the head priestess, or Lady. But her mother is badly injured in the earthquake, and is left unspeaking, in a state of disorientation, unable to walk or reason. Leira's father is the owner of a ship that trades goods all around the sea and their family is one of the leading families. Many homes are damaged and the population retreats into the hills and countryside, taking over the homes of others and struggling to find a way forward. 

After a short while, Leira's father decides to take her, her mother, and a servant along on their next voyage, to the large island of Crete, where they will request help and healing from the leaders there, and stay with her older brother who is acting as a trader for them there.

But even Crete has been affected by the earthquake and there are things that don't seem right in the relationship with the leaders there. Despite misgivings, Leira's father feels he must leave them there and return after his trading voyage. But things quickly go from bad to worse when another earthquake hits, and Leira must grow up quickly, taking charge of her small family unit and finding a way to survive that still honours her clan and provides the small group of women with a livelihood. 

Leira is a kind girl, relating to people of all classes even from the beginning, and this empathy and willing to connect serves her well in her challenges. She has pride, but also recognizes what she must do to survive. She finds a way to be true to her Swallow Clan, honor her origins in the priestess class, and accept a new way of making a livelihood in her situation. She asks for help in a respectful way, both from the people she meets and the gods, and she finds unexpected answers. 

The more I read, the more this story and the character of Leira drew me in. 

Hearts of Stone

Finished January 3
Hearts of Stone by Simon Scarrow

This novel jumps between two time periods, late 2013 and World War II. In the more modern time period, Anna is a high school history teacher in London and it's nearing Christmas break when she gets an email from a man, Dietrich Muller, in Germany asking if she is Anna, and if her grandmother was Eleni. At first, Anna is wary, but after doing some research, she listens to his story. 

It goes back to 1938 in Greece, on the island of Lefkas, where Eleni is from. Dietrich's grandfather Peter, and great-grandfather Karl were on the island doing an archeological dig led by Karl. Eleni's father was the police inspector in the main town there and thus they met, and the teenagers, Peter, Eleni, and her friend Andreas, spent a lot of time together and became friends. 

Karl was called back to Germany as things got more tense, and Andreas joined the navy shortly after. We then follow Andreas and Eleni on their journeys during the war, as Anna talks to her grandmother and finally gets her to open up about that time in her past. Dietrich's knows Peter's story from the diaries he left behind, and they share how those stories diverge and intersect.

The island of Lefkas is the setting for most of the historical part of the story, and I got a good sense of both the land and the people who lived there. This was a horrific time for them as they were occupied first by the Italians and then by the Germans, both of whom took much of the food there for themselves. The islanders natural resistance to this made reprisals common, and this created a cycle of tragedy and loss. The author also ties in more ancient history to the story through archeology and the long history of the Greek people. 

I really enjoyed this book and even though it is a long book, I read it fairly quickly. 

The Sweetest Fruits

Finished August 6
The Sweetest Fruits by Monique Truong

This book goes deep into the life of Greek-Irish writer Lafcadio Hearn's life through four women that were important in his life. Hearn was a writer I wasn't aware of before reading this book, and he doesn't come across in a very positive way here. I was definitely interested in all four of the women who tell the story though.
The first woman to appear is Elizabeth Bisland. Bisland was a journalist and traveller who wrote a biography of Hearn that her portions draw from. The two met when they both lived in New Orleans in the early 1880s. Interestingly, I had recently been made aware of Hearn and her travels through a book that showed her and Nellie Bly circumnavigating the world in opposite directions, Liz and Nellie. I love it when these serendipitous connections happen! Sections of her biography are interspersed between the accounts of the other three women.
The second woman is the first one in Lafcadio's life, his mother, Rosa Antonia Cassimati. Her life was a difficult one. She was born and lived on Cythera, Her mother died when she was young, she was uneducated despite being from a well-off family, and once she hit puberty her father severely restricted her life, not wanting to pay a dowry for her. She was being groomed for the life of a nun when she was able to use her unsupervised visits to a local church to make a connection with an Irish officer from the fort nearby. Once she became pregnant and her father turned her out, she moved with Hearn when he was transferred to Lefkada, and they married there after the birth of their first son. Lafcadio (Patrick) was the second son, Rosa and the young boy moved to Ireland when he was still a toddler. After a cold welcome, she moved in with Hearn's aunt Sarah, but never settled and moved back to Greece, leaving Lafcadio with Sarah. She gave birth to their third son, James, on the trip back. This was the last she saw of her son.
The third woman was Alethea (Mattie) Foley, a young African American woman that Hearn met when he lived in Cincinnati. Their marriage was against the law in Ohio, and the two had issues before eventually parting. This was an interesting section to the book, giving a glimpse into the life of a young black woman in Cincinnati during this time and a sense of her independence and fortitude. I really liked her. She was a good woman with a sense of her own worth.
The last woman was Koizuni Setsu, a Japanese woman of a samurai family. Setsu married Hearn and he eventually took a Japanese name and was adopted into her family to stay in Japan, which he would not have been able to do as a foreigner. Setsu was educated and a skilled seamstress and weaver, with her family in the textile business. Under the Japanese regime that began just after her birth, the samurai families lost their status, and the family struggled throughout her life. The couple had four children, and most of Hearn's time was spent teaching English or writing about Japanese myth and culture. Hearn died in Japan in 1904 of a heart attack at the age of 54. Setsu eventually wrote her own book about her husband.
I learned a lot about Hearn, but really enjoyed learning about these women and liked how the characters of his mother and wives were brought to life here.

I Know My Name

Finished December 26
I Know My Name by C.J. Cooke

I borrowed this book from my mom, who had borrowed it from a friend. A twist on your typical thriller. Set mostly in London, this book starts with Lochlan Shelley being called from his wife's cellphone by a neighbour. His wife appears to be missing, with only their four-year-old son Max, and twelve-week old daughter Cressida alone in the house. The neighbour, Mrs. Shahjalal, had come over after accepting a delivery for the house by a man who said no one answered. She'd seen Max at the window and wondered whether there was something wrong. Lochlan works for a corporate finance company, and spends part of every week in Edinburgh, where he was when called.
His company is not one for being understanding of their staff's personal lives, but he knows that his family must come first. He doesn't see his wife Eloise as one for taking off like this. While they had got more distant with each other lately due to his heavy workload, she was close to her children, and still breast-feeding their baby.
El had an unusual childhood, taken to England by her irresponsible mother Jude when she was only four, and being raised after the age of twelve and her mother's death in Switzerland by her grandparents, Gerda and Magnus Bachmann. The Bachmann's now live in England, and arrive shortly after Lochlan contacts them. He's already contacted the police, and there are a few paths of investigation being followed, one involving the four nanny cams the Shelley's installed in the house after Max was born.
Before having children, El ran a charity for refugee children, but she stepped down as leader to spend more time with the children.
There is a separate storyline of El's viewpoint, as she finds herself washed up with a boat on a remote Greek island. There are four people on the island, having a writers' retreat. Two women, Hazel and Sariah, and two men, George and Joe. Joe knows enough first aid to patch her up, and George is a take charge kind of guy, but not always in a good way.
I found myself fascinated as the two storylines progressed, worrying about El, and concerned for Lochlan's actions. A fascinating read.

Greeks Bearing Gifts

Finished June 5
Greeks Bearing Gifts by Philip Kerr

This is part of the series featuring Bernie Gunther, but the first one that I have read.
This story takes place in 1957, and begins in Munich, where Bernie has taken on a new identity as Christof Ganz, and is working as mortuary attendant in a hospital. When the body of a man killed due to an explosion of a war period bomb needs to be identified by one of the men injured in the same incident, Ganz must show the body to the man and one of the policemen in attendance recognizes him. As he gets drawn into a situation that he knows will create problems for him, he trusts his instincts and goes for help to a man he knows, who also has involvement with the blackmailer.
As a result Ganz gets recommended for a job as an insurance adjustor. His detective skills make the job a good fit for him, and he gets brought in to cover for another colleague in the insurance on a boat that was sunk in Greece.
As he meets with the man at the Athens office of the insurance company, and gets to know him, he also lets his instincts lead him to follow the man claiming the loss. The subsequent death of the man raises other issues, and he ends up working with a Greek police detective to try to find the killer behind this and other deaths.
The case takes him to local lawyers, accused war criminals, museum curators, a beautiful young woman, and an arm of the Israeli state.
This is a complex case, with a reach back into the war years, with Gunther/Ganz wanting to do the right thing to atone for his country's actions in the war, but also save his own skin.
I quite enjoyed it.

The Lucky Child

Finished February 21
The Lucky Child by Marianne Apostolides
This was a short quick, but satisfying read. Apostolides was drawn to her family's history and began to do research on it, particularly the period during the war when her father was a boy. This fictional account draws on that history and the immediacy of it is very well done. Set in Thessalonika and mountain villages nearby, this tells the story of Agamemnon, an officer in the army, a veterinarian who was in charge of the army's animals. He also served his community as a veterinarian, and was a strong royalist. This tells the story from the wars early years, through 1943 and deals with not only the Nazi occupation of Greece and the effect that had on this community, but also the communist EAM/ELAS groups that later led to civil war in Greece. We see the story from a variety of points of view, Agamemnon, his wife Mary, his young son Taki, his older daughter Loukia and see how the point of view changes the story. We see their interactions with the neighbours and the dangers they face. This is an interesting vignette of this short period in time. Apostolides also includes information on her real family history in an epilogue that adds context to the tale.

Spies of the Balkans

Finished April 1
Spies of the Balkans by Alan Furst, read by Daniel Gerroll
This story takes place in 1940 and early 1941, mostly in Greece. The main character here is Constantine "Costa" Zannis, who has a senior position in the police force in the port city of Salonika.
Greece fights back an Italian invasion coming from the north and pushed the Italian forces back to Albania. There is increasing pressure on the Balkans from the Germans, and Zannis begins to see signs of spies from a variety of countries. Zannis himself also becomes involved in facilitating an escape route from Germany to Turkey. As time goes on the danger escalates and Zannis finds that he has come to the notice of the Germans as well.
We see his personal life as well as the issues he deals with as a policeman, and this novel provides great plot and characters. For those who, like me, like novels set during the early twentieth century, this novel is a great read. There is danger, suspense, romance, and humour.