The Thread

When Turkish troops force the people of Smyrna from their homes in 1922, a young girl named Katerina becomes separated from her mother amid the chaos. Taken in by a fellow refugee with two daughters of her own, Katerina and her surrogate family make a new life together in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. Katerina soon meets Dimitri, the young son of a wealthy businessman, who is living nearby while his mother remodels their mansion on the sea. The novel takes place over the course of their lifetimes, and tracks the crossing of their paths as they struggle to survive and nurture a love indifferent to dogma and national conflict in a city beleaguered by political, social, and emotional turbulence, including Nazi occupation, Communist backlash, civil war, and poverty. . Hislop (The Island) is a clever storyteller who deftly manages to flesh out Katerina and Dimitri’s personal lives, while never abandoning the collective for the sake of the individual—20th-century Greece and her citizens are brought vividly to life. Striking an excellent balance between historicity and impassioned drama, Hislop’s newest should not be missed. Agent: Melanie Jackson. (July)