A perfect end of a gripping trilogy; I couldn't recommend Manning's series enough, for its history, its characters and the choices they make, its depictions of the time, place and events.

The last book in this trilogy follows on from events in 'The Spoilt City'. Harriet is now in Athens desperately awaiting news of Guy, who had stayed behind in Bucharest. Yakimov, who she has now befriended in her loneliness, is the one to bring it to her. Unfortunately she soon discovers that Guy's arrival will do little to alleviate her loneliness as he immediately throws himself into trying to find work and helping out in the community; as in Bucharest, he has little time to spare for her. On the surface, Guy is in affable and warmhearted; eager to believe the best of people, but in reality, one of the most thoughtless and irritating characters; beaten only by Pinkrose, who has this time, overtaken Yakimov to the title.

In the beginning of this book, Athens seems to be a pretty safe bet, and the Pringles, meet up with most of their friends from the previous novels, and a few new ones, but as the war progresses, the situation in Greece becomes increasingly volatile.

I did start to run out of steam a little with this last book, but that is probably more to do with me not always being all that keen on long books. While I would like to carry on and read the Levant Trilogy as well, I think I'll leave it for a little while..

*Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for a copy of this book to read in exchange for an honest opinion*

Having been hounded out of Bucharest by the German occupation of Romania, Guy and Harriet Pringle try to find stability in Athens, but then the Italians invade Northern Greece. Having attempted to get away from the war, the war has come to them.
Olivia Manning's magnificent trilogy of novels inspired by her own time in the Balkans in 1939-1941 comes to an end. Olivia captures the valour of the Greek people and an army that fights off the Italians but can't compete against the Germans. More men die from starvation, the cold and frostbite, than from enemy bullets.
The author is unrivalled in her portrayal of ordinary people caught up in the horrors of war. A poignant and unforgettable work of brilliance.

It's simply impossible for me to review separately the 3 magnificent novels included in Olivia Manning's masterpiece The Balkan Trilogy.

In The Great Fortune, The Spoilt City & Friends and Heroes, the reader will follow the adventures of Guy & Harriet Pringle, a young British expatriate couple, recently married, who live in Bucharest at the beginning of WWII and the story of their escape journey toward Greece prior to the German invasion of Romania. It's simply a masterpiece of postwar European fiction.
Tartishly written, highly entertaining, sad, menacing and full of incredible characters hailing from every corner of Europe, we get sucked into the vortex of their lives and struggles from the get go and it's just an incredible trip from start to finish! Never a dull moment, it's just an unputdownable work of fiction.

Manning went on to write 3 additional novels about this couple and their wartime experience in Greece then Egypt. Better known as The Levant Trilogy it includes The Danger Tree, The Battle Lost & Won and The Sum of Things.

It's high time to put Olivia Manning on the map and finally recognize her for what she is, one of the greatest English but also European novelist of the second half of the 20th century

Many thanks to Netgalley and Random House UK for the opportunity of read this wonderful novel prior to its release date

In this last part of The Balkan Trilogy, the Pringles have left Romania and arrive in Athens. Without the interesting background of war politics, there is more emphasis on their marriage as well as much bureaucracy concerning the British Council and the hopeless administration. In that sense, much of the tension is rather petty and there's far more about Yakimov, Dubedat and Toby Lush than I wanted.

The core interest, for me, is seeing both Guy and Harriet facing the dissatisfactions of their marriage and their sense of each other. This is definitely the most meandering of the three books and doesn't have much narrative drive. Episodic and a little dull, though the Pringles are forced to evacuate again at the end, towards Egypt.

The other notable difference is the reaction of Harriet to Greece over Romania - whereas her general distaste for Romania and Romanians was unpleasant, here she finds Athens 'home', very much part of the British appropriation of classical culture to English identity. The confidence shown in ideas of empire and colonialism, both material and cultural, marks these books of their time - though Manning was writing in the 1960s, I think, not contemporaneously. So an interesting trilogy that captures an essentially conservative, even reactionary, view to WW2 and the decline of British power.