Eleni [Paperback]

Nicholas Gage (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 29, 1996

In 1948, as civil war ravaged Greece, children were abducted and sent to communist "camps" inside the Iron Curtain. Eleni Gatzoyiannis, forty-one, defied the traditions of her small village and the terror of the communist insurgents to arrange for the escape of her three daughters and her son, Nicola. For that act, she was imprisoned, tortured, and executed in cold blood.

Nicholas Gage joined his father in Massachusetts at the age of nine and grew up to become a top New York Times investigative reporter, honing his skills with one thought in mind: to return to Greece and uncover the one story he cared about most: the story of his mother.

Eleni takes you into the heart a village destroyed in the name of ideals and into the soul of a truly heroic woman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A Story Assigned By Fate...Minutely Observed And Eloquently Rendered."

-- The New York Times Book Review



"A Remarkable Work Of 'Faction'...I can think of no higher praise of this book than to say that it is fit to stand as a monument to Eleni Gatzoyiannis."

-- The New Republic

"Remarkable...Brilliant... Unique...Eleni lives through this book. Her son has done her justice."

-- USA Today

From the Inside Flap

In 1948, as civil war ravaged Greece, children were abducted and sent to communist "camps" inside the Iron Curtain. Eleni Gatzoyiannis, forty-one, defied the traditions of her small village and the terror of the communist insurgents to arrange for the escape of her three daughters and her son, Nicola. For that act, she was imprisoned, tortured, and executed in cold blood.

Nicholas Gage joined his father in Massachusetts at the age of nine and grew up to become a top New York Times investigative reporter, honing his skills with one thought in mind: to return to Greece and uncover the one story he cared about most: the story of his mother.

Eleni takes you into the heart a village destroyed in the name of ideals and into the soul of a truly heroic woman.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 29, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345410432
• ISBN-13: 978-0345410436
• Product Dimensions: 1 x 5.5 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #130,342 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelming December 12, 1999

By Alekos

Format:Paperback

Human diminishment is the theme of this masterwork, which shows how people can sacrifice their rational powers and nobler instincts on the altar of a reductionist ideology, then descend into the (home) economics of envy and the politics of resentment, and end up killing off even the mildest opposition. Concretely, it is about how Communist guerrillas in Epirus took over the village of Lia, reduced the once sturdy villagers to treacherous, starving, vermin-infested semi-savages, used them for slave labor, and finally murdered many of them. The story centers on Eleni Gatzoyiannis, who attempts to escape with her children, more for their sakes than her own. The Communists manage to get other villagers to snitch on her and they end up torturing and murdering her in a ravine along with a few other villagers. Nicholas Gage reports here on what he found out about exactly what happened in that doomed village and what happened to Eleni. Gage is, in fact, Eleni's only son and he managed to escape to America just before the Greek national armies managed to rid the northern mountains of the Communists. A successful journalist in the US, he has written a marvelous account of some unsettling and depressing events. Toward the end of the book he has the chance to take revenge on the person most responsible for his mother's fate, but decides it would be a more fitting tribute to her if he did without his revenge. Some parts of the narrative are (necessarily) reconstructed, but in general the work is faithful to the facts of history. Extremely powerful, it will stay with the reader long after the reading is finished.

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The best book I ever read! January 2, 2006

By Nicholas Vuduris

Format:Paperback

I'm from Greece. Before 4 years i read this book, and till then I can't forget it. I visit the place where Eleni lived and died, I talked with people who met Eleni, or their childrens. Reading this book, I had in my mind my own village, where same stories were happened. I could wright more and more for this lovevly book, but my english aren't good and i don't want to anoy you. Read this book and learn what happened at the heroic Greece. I'm glad to be here. Nicholas.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrifying and Touching March 11, 2000

By Edda R. Bevilacqua

Format:Paperback

Nicholas Gage (Nicola Gatzoyiannis)wrote a book that was both terrifying and touching. It was terrifying because it exposed the brutality of Communism and touching because it told of a woman's undying love for her children, especially the boy who would one day pay tribute to her. The descriptions of torture Eleni and fellow villagers endured at the hands of the ELAS/DAG were some of the most horrifying things I've ever read. The scene where Eleni tells her son, Nicola, to be brave and gives him a gift of a cross is one of the most touching scenes of family love I've ever read about. This story is a must-read for everyone. It is both instructive about the moral degradation caused by Communism and about the courage of a family. Also read Nicholas Gage's followup, "A Place for Us: Eleni's Children in America," which chronicles events leading up to Gage's life today. Excellent writer!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars the best book I've read March 25, 2005

By armydoc

Format:Paperback

I'm half Greek but only recently heard of "Eleni" and the author Nicholas Gage ("Gatzoyiannis" in Greek). I'm not sure how I missed them growing up, though I think my parents may have read this story when I was little.

"Eleni" is the moving story of Gage's mother Eleni (the Greek form of "Helen") and their family in war-torn northern Greece near the Albanian border. It recounts the effects of the Greek civil war (when Greek communists were fighting Greek nationalists for control of the country, post- WWII) on their village, Lia, and on their entire family.

I cried a lot during the book. Not necessarily because it was sad, but because it was so moving and beautiful. Eleni the person can be summarized in one word: love. She took the necessary steps to help her children escape from communist-controlled Northern Greece, and for her effors the communists (fighting "for the people," mind you) murdered her, along with 4 other villagers that they felt were not "for the communist cause." Eleni's faith, devotion to her family, and continued struggles throughout her life are very inspiring for me. I am an Orthodox Christian, and I regularly pray to her now for intercessions to help me. I firmly believe that she is among the saints as a "New Holy Martyr of Greece," just like the Russians have new martyrs that died as a result of communist persecution in their country.

Her 5 children (4 girls and one boy), Olga, Kanta, Glykeria, Fotini, and Nikola (who is now Nicholas Gage) are devoted to their mother. It is worth noting that if it weren't for Eleni, the 5 would probably have been shipped to an Eastern bloc country to be raised by communists, which was done in Northern Greece during that time.... Children were taken from their mothers and sent to communist propaganda camps in the Eastern bloc. Kanta and Glykeria served time as "andartinas," young Greek girls taken from their families and forced to fight for the Greek communists.

Gage's book is warm, loving, tender, and heartfelt. His style of writing truly makes you feel that you are there in Lia, witnessing what is going on to the characters, which is both good but horrible. Some of the events truly make you realize how evil men can be toward each other.

I highly recommend "Eleni." I just ordered and am looking forward to reading the sequel, "A Place For Us," which recounts the story of Eleni's 5 children and their family after immigrating to America in the late 1940's. Read more ›

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A mother of an honorable legacy: Eleni November 4, 2000

By Lurdes Arias Hose

Format:Paperback

I read the book some 5 years ago and found myself closing the book to the horrifying scenes of torture. This is the true story of an era of shame in the history of Greece that so many Greeks tried to hush and distort the truths about the so called "civil war". It is an honest encounter of the horrors of that war. But most of all it is the story and glory of a mother whom words cannot describe her grace, her love for her children and her courage. Nocholas Gatzogiannis bears a legacy of a mother that very few people can understand. Should Eleni's spirit sees him from above, she can only feel proud of her son. For he not took revenge but instead wrote the TRUTH.