Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle Reading App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Apple
Android
Windows Phone
Android
To get the free app, enter your email address or mobile phone number.
"Neverwhere" by Neil Gaiman Neverwhere is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he is plunged through the cracks of reality into a world of shadows and darkness—the Neverwhere. Learn more | See related books
$11.30
FREE Shipping on orders over $35.
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
Gift-wrap available.
Frequently Bought Together
{"currencyCode":"USD","itemData":[{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.3,"ASIN":"067976397X","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0},{"priceBreaksMAP":null,"buyingPrice":11.59,"ASIN":"1400079322","moqNum":1,"isPreorder":0}],"shippingId":"067976397X::RHDRd8mlCX0CQstMPybuQs%2FwbblmEredWwJYv7DzSagt%2BVKM8PzMgqnKze%2FebJAqKjJ1KKsEdjM3dDZpDB9OHix4admxra20n%2B62C%2FCwFxw%3D,1400079322::NW%2FJRkmaPg8TuES9eK6aoXcp4CWXeP5ew7pgrFvWfRH4qED9XD2hQhb2HUzvL30qO54ladfCXxz4Vr%2F1pBT4YlbujH1zxwNszNIkithdGAY%3D","sprites":{"addToWishlist":["wl_one","wl_two","wl_three"],"addToCart":["s_addToCart","s_addBothToCart","s_add3ToCart"],"preorder":["s_preorderThis","s_preorderBoth","s_preorderAll3"]},"shippingDetails":{"xy":"same"},"tags":["x","y","z","w"],"strings":{"addToWishlist":["Add to Wish List","Add both to Wish List","Add all three to Wish List","Add all four to Wish List"],"addToCart":["Add to Cart","Add both to Cart","Add all three to Cart","Add all four to Cart"],"showDetailsDefault":"Show availability and shipping details","shippingError":"An error occurred, please try again","hideDetailsDefault":"Hide availability and shipping details","priceLabel":["Price:","Price for both:","Price for all three:","Price For All Four:"],"preorder":["Pre-order this item","Pre-order both items","Pre-order all three items","Pre-order all four items"]}}
This shopping feature will continue to load items. In order to navigate out of this carousel please use your heading shortcut key to navigate to the next or previous heading.
Best Books of the Month
Want to know our Editors' picks for the best books of the month? Browse Best Books of the Month, featuring our favorite new books in more than a dozen categories.
Corelli's Mandolin is a passionate, inventive, funny, and extravagant novel. Set on the Ionian island of Cephallonia in Greece during the Second World War, the novel is largely the story of the local physician, Dr. Iannis, and his attractive, but willful, daughter Pelagia. The story follows Pelagia’s first love with Mandras, a local fisherman who leaves to fight in the war. Soon after, Cephallonia is invaded by Italian soldiers. An Italian captain, Antonio Corelli, is assigned to live in their home, where he soon begins a romantic intrigue with Pelagia. The novel has a long list of eccentric and engaging minor characters: Carlo, the secretively gay soldier, the strong man Velisarios, the wonderfully curious Lemoni, and Pelagia’s pet pine marten, Psipsina. Some of these characters even carry their own storyline.
Although it could be called a historical romance, Corelli's Mandolin is also a biting political satire. It chronicles the horrors and absurdity of war, as well as the boredom of occupation. It abounds with all the grand topics of literature. De Bernières is a master of the written word and a gifted storyteller. There are rich characterizations and witty dialogue; at times I laughed out loud. However the book is not without problems. The introduction seems long and disjointed (Captian Corelli doesn’t show up until you’re a third of the way through the story), and the ending seems drawn-out and unpersuasive. However, if you will patiently wait and you’re your way through, a story well worth reading emerges.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
The book is pretentious from its title to its plotting to its scenes of abject horror which often seem to be aimed at titillation. As one who loves words, I hated seeing "pellucid" and "vertiginous" alongside "orientated." If the book had not been historically accurate, I would not have put up with the horrors upon horrors followed by greater horror that the author dumped upon his characters.
Despite it all, I found it difficult to put this book down. Although the characters are fictional and some of the individual incidents contrived, the story largely mirrors the experiences real people suffered on the Greek Islands, and particularly Cephallonia, during and immediately after WW II. This is a chapter of that war rarely noticed. We see a people caught between ancient history and modern politics in a rapidly-changing geopolitical landscape. From the rape of Albania to the wholesale slaughter of "traitorous" Italian troops, the book captures the reality of what happened through the story of the village doctor, his daughter, and the men who compete for her love. My love-hate relationship with this story ends with four stars.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
After reading other reviews, I expected this to be more lyrical. Being married to a Greek who had a parent from Corfue, I thought I would enjoy reading about the Greek culture and history. However, I felt I had to be more well-versed in classical literature in order to get a lot of the symbolism and references to various Greek Gods in the first part of the story. There were a lot of bloody details about various battles which I had to skim through. Actually, I skimmed through a lot of the book because I was more interested in the main characters' lives than many details that seemed to bog down the storyline.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Very well written and enjoyable. It felt like I was getting a true insight into the people of Cephallonia plus it was all historically true. I did not know about this chapter of WWII. I want to visit the island of Cephallonia now. I have not seen the movie adaptation, but I cannot imagine that it is as good as the book.
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Usually we read a book, and, if we enjoy it, we go see the movie when it comes out. Often we are disappointed with the movie. In this case I saw the movie before I read this book. I loved the movie but was hesitant about Mr. De Bernieres, having read somewhere that he was something of a surrealist, and I prefer straight storytelling. "Corelli's Mandolin" is a wonder of a book: full of great characters, a beautifully described setting, and lots of tension and conflict. Dr. Iannis lives on the island of Cephallonia with his daughter Pelagia, who serves as his housekeeper and apprentice. She is engaged to a local fisherman who is going off to fight the Italians in Albania. With the help of the Germans, the Italians are defeated in Albania, and the Italians, Captain Antonio Corelli among them, occupy the island. Corelli is billeted in Dr. Iannis's house and soon Pelagia and he fall in love. When the Italians surrender to the Allies, the Germans take control of the island the Italians are massacred , but Corelli survives and the Greeks help him escape. The last third of the book tells Pelagia's story after Corelli leaves. She never marries and has a hard, uncertain life. It is only when she has reached old age that Corelli returns to find her. This last part of the book is not as good as the first two thirds. It is told in narrative summary as you would read in a history book. If I were the author I think I would have ended "Corelli's Mandolin" when he escaped from Cephallonia, and written a second novel about Pelagia's life afterward. That way he would have the room to tell her story fully with characters and dialogue and immediate scenes. It is easy to see why none of this made it into the movie. Despite this criticism, I fully recommend "Corelli's Mandolin".
Comment
Was this review helpful to you?
Yes No
Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
If this review is inappropriate, please let us know.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more
![]({"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515RTPwbz6L._SX323_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[325,499],"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515RTPwbz6L._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg":[226,346]})
