I maybe went into this one with wrong expectations and thus I came out rather dissappointed.
Overall this book really drags on. A quarter in and I don't think the name giving figurine was even mentioned once. Whis is especially weird because the one excellent moment in the novel was when the firt of the figurines makes an appearance. That was a scene between Helena and her mother that was written very intimately - and the ancient figurine really shines in it as well. At this point I had hopes that the book would take another direction, but it didn't.
Then: I don't like child narrators (which is not the author's fault obviously), and while here is not a child that narrates, for a long time it was the child's point of view. And later on I was confusedby the narrative perspective as a whole, because a lot of time the story is unambiguously told from the point of view of Helena/Eleni, the child, but then it switches - without reason or structure, often from one sentence to the next and back - to the point of view of other characters.
The characters, every one of them, are too neat in their clichés, in their being villains or good people. I was hoping for some nuance from everyone, but until the very end of the book, none appeared. Not one character that was not a cardboard cutout.
From my perspective the novel was a whole lot of wasted opportunities to write an interesting book about family history and family dynamics, about emigration, about Greece, its history and the dictatorship in the 20th century, about it's ancient history and maybe prehistory, about archeology and artefacts, about the art trade and its very dark side. But it treat any of those things with any depth or craft. It was a confused collection of topics, superficially used to string together a construed plot that I was never interested in reading, because it was very obvious from the start.
To finish the book I had to fall back to the audiobook version at some point, because I would not drag myself to pick up the ebook. Unfortunately the audiobook narrator did her best to emulate an artifical voice and it didn't help that even when that child was 18 or so, the narrator still used a child like voice when she did her.
All in all this is probably the only book by Victoria Hislop I'll ever read. I'm not the intended audience, I'm afraid.

Another winner by this author. Highlighting the harshness of modern Greek history and the illegal trade in antiquities, we see all of this through the eyes of Helena, a half Greek and Scottish girl. The glimpses of life in athens from her privileged and corrupt grandfather, and then she is caught up in a romance and betrayed, discovering her unwitting role in the looting of antiquities, leads to her direction in the pursuit of justice and fairness. Along the way we have a rich cast of characters and a generous dollop of Greek hospitality and sunshine.

Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc of this book!

This is such a beautiful story about the history of Greece and the figurines. Helena is overpowered by emotions of childhood memories in Greece when she inherits her Grandparents apartment in Athens. Helena wants to find answers to her Grandfathers cruel dictatorship and sifting through the apartment finds many valuable antiques and objects which she is determined to figure out why they are there.

This is an absolutely beautiful story. Victoria captures Greece in so much detail I feel like I am immersed into the story so deeply and I felt every emotion with Helena throughout. It was a long story but the amount of detail was definitely needed to really capture the whole picture of the story. There are some moving chapters and the slow transition into a slight thriller is brilliant and didn’t go unnoticed!

Definitely recommend this lovely book and incredible author.

I have read several of Victoria Hislop's book and they have all been wonderful. This one was no exception, fabulous feeling of the country and it's relics. I did find myself getting a bit bored with so much Greek language in the first part of the book, when she visited her grandparents for holidays. However the story warmed up when she was an adult and went to University.
After that I found the story quite immersive and longed to get back to it.
A great book.

Victoria Hislop has a clear love affair with Greece. The descriptions of Greece, the food, and its people are exquisite in The Figurine. Helena spends her summers with her grandparents in Athens, where she finds an affinity for the life and culture. As an adult, she returns rk the islands on an archaeological dig, where she uncovers more than she bargained for. She returns to her grandparents' house in Athens to clear it after their passing to uncover a treasure trive of antiquities that have been amassed and need returning to their rightful place. This was a great story, beautifully told, but a little drawn out in places. Still recommend as a solid read. #thefigurine #victoriahislop #netgalley

I really enjoyed this book.Victoria at her best as this is on par with the Island.Loved the era its set it and the historical aspects.

When Helena inherits her grandparent’s apartment in Athens, she finds an array of valuable objects.
Her Grandfather had been a general under the military dictatorship - how had he amassed such a treasure trove and at what human cost.
Her desire to find answers also linked nicely to her curiosity for archaeology following a summer spent on a dig
Helena is determined to return the precious objects to their rightful places and to find justice for those harmed by the illegal trade of selling ancient finds.
Loved the gorgeous setting of Athens & Greece.
Helena as a main character was likeable and engaging and loved how in her quest to give the precious objects back to their rightful owners, she starts to question her own meaning of home.
The book powerfully argues for the protection of finds and the respect of local cultures.
However it is a hefty tomb of a book at 500 pages, but just abandon yourself to the book and you’ll learn so much it’s fascinating.
Perfect for any historical fiction fan
Thanks @vichislop @headlinebooks & @netgalley for the opportunity to read.

Fascinating insight.
This book was so well written and knowledgeable.
Helena the daughter of Scottish Hamish and Greek Mary, is invited to visit her mysterious Grandparents who live in Athens. Helena is greeted by her doting Grandmother and her austere Grandfather. Although she enjoys the trips out and time shared with her Grandmother, she senses the lurking evil in her Grandfather and his nephew.
Helenas parents take her in a trip to the Greek island, where she learns of her Mother's illness and the reason for her separation from her parents. Helena goes to Oxford and makes new friends one of which is a gifted actor and archaeology student Nick, they go on a dig to a Greek island and she is inspired by the history of the treasures that they find there. Learning that her Grandmother has died and left her large flat in Athens to her, Helena goes there to sort it out. She meets students who explain the evil past of her Grandfather and the repercussions, also the looting of antiques from various sites. Upon being reunited with Nick, they argue and his true character shows itself.
With her group of friends both from London and Athens, Helena works towards finding the men behind the theft of priceless artefacts.
Thank you Victoria and NetGalley.

If you like archaeology/antiques and feel-good books, that’s one story for you.

The writing flows naturally and tells the story of Helena, from her childhood into her early womanhood who has Scottish and Greek heritage. There is something very sweet and genuine about the way life appears through Helena’s eyes. There’s a veiled sadness, sometimes confusion, well blended with love and discovery. There are past and present intertwined in a story where everything should become whole and find its natural place, and I really liked that.

The few flaws I found in the world Hislop created and a fair level of predictability didn’t spoil the overall pleasant feeling of finding and protecting good things in life, which is the main message for me.

Helena and the figurine, to me, are the same. The attachment to their past, their broken and fragile state and their beauty/aura that bring them forward.

Nick looks like a character from Saltburn, in the most positive and villain-ish way.

I really want to go to Greece now. Drink some good wine and visit as many little villages as possible, honouring their people and their art.

"The Figurine" by Victoria Hislop is a slow-burning Athens adventure fueled by ancient secrets and simmering tension. Unveiling family mysteries through a trove of antiquities, Hislop masterfully blends suspense and a love of Athens and Greek society. Though the ending may peek through, the journey grips you tight, a page turner!

This book has a slow start. I did wonder for the first third of the book where it would be going. The storyline was fairly predictable and the characters could have done with more fleshing out.

I liked how it was set in Greece, London and Oxford, which made for a nice mixture of settings.

Overall it was an enjoyable read but often it was bogged down with too much detail and not enough focus on character development. It would be good for fans of historical fiction.

Helena spends two weeks every summer with her maternal grandparents in Athens. Her mother refuses to go back to the country run by a brutal dictatorship, especially as her father is a high ranking military officer. When Helena inherits their apartment, she finds many antique treasures and tries to put right the crimes of her grandfather.
I found this to be more historical information than fictional entertainment which was at the detriment of the characters and storyline. Great for fans of the history genre.

This book was an interesting eye opener into Greek history. Helena, half Greek and half English tells her story about her controversial Greek grandparents. A very interesting book but at times a little bit too much detail.

I found this quite a slow read to start with, but by the end felt I'd learned an embarrassing amount of modern Greek history and had a new awareness of the problem of artefacts being stolen.

Victoria Hislop's passion for Greece comes through, maybe one to stash away until a sunny holiday next year?

In her new novel, The Figurine, Victoria Hislop tackles the subject of the theft and smuggling of art and antiquities, a problem that has existed for centuries and sadly is still making news headlines today. As Hislop explains in her foreword to the book, ‘the theft of cultural treasures and the falsification of provenance diminishes our understanding of civilisation’. The Figurine explores this topic through the eyes of Helena McCloud, a young woman with a Greek mother and Scottish father.

We first meet Helena in 1968 as an eight-year-old child arriving in Athens to visit her grandparents for the first time. Her mother was born and raised in Greece, but she doesn’t accompany Helena on this trip and appears to have been estranged from her family for many years, although at this point we don’t know why. Everything is new and strange to Helena, but during this visit – and more to follow over the next few summers – she begins to fall in love with Greece and to develop loving relationships with her grandmother and the housekeeper, Dina. Her grandfather, however, remains a cold, remote figure and her dislike of him grows as she discovers that he has connections with the military dictatorship currently in control of the country.

Helena’s summers in Greece come to an end in the 1970s due to political turmoil and by the time it’s safe to return, her grandparents are no longer alive. Heading to Athens to inspect the apartment she has inherited from them, she makes another shocking discovery about her grandfather, this time relating to his involvement in the looting of valuable historical artefacts. Helena’s own interest in antiquities has already led her to take part in an archaeological dig on an island in the Aegean Sea. Can she use her newly gained knowledge to make amends for what her grandfather has done?

This is the third Victoria Hislop novel I’ve read, after Those Who Are Loved, also set in Greece, and The Sunrise, set during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, and although I didn’t enjoy it as much as those two books, it was still a fascinating story. As well as the exploration of cultural theft and its impact on world heritage, we also learn a lot about the political situation in Greece during the 1960s and 70s and of course, there are lots of beautiful descriptions of the country itself. While there are some horrible characters in the novel, Helena also makes several friends and I loved watching her bond with her grandparents’ servant, Dina – I enjoyed seeing them sneak out onto the streets of Athens in search of somewhere to view the 1969 moon landing, because her grandfather has cruelly removed the television to stop them from watching this historic event.

My main problem with this book was the length; I felt that there were lots of scenes that added very little to the overall story and could easily have been left out. I also found some parts of the plot predictable and others very unrealistic, particularly towards the end of the book where Helena and her friends decide to take matters into their own hands when it would surely have been much more sensible just to have gone to the police.

Although this isn’t a favourite Hislop novel, I do have another one, The Thread, on my shelf which I’m looking forward to reading.

Excellent new novel from Victoria Hislop, a definite contender for her best one to date. Helena spends most of her holidays with her grandparents in Athens and despite her grandfather cruel and distant demeanour she falls in the love with Greece, its culture and history. Upon the death of her grandparents she inherits their apartment and is in a hurry to get it cleared until she uncovers information about its contents, her grandfather and links to her family’s past. Her interest in history and archaeology develops alongside a relationship with a fellow student, who appears to be keeping her at arms length. Her determination to rectify the looting and removal of artefacts from their original site gives her a point of focus in her life that she seemed to have lost and it drives her forward.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and publishers for an ARC in return for an honest review.

I have been a fan of Victoria Hislop’s mesmerising, evocative Greece fiction since reading ‘The Island’ in 2005. Almost 20 years later, and this uniquely talented writer is still publishing novels that live up to her debut, capturing the nuances of modern-day Greece and the complex, endlessly fascinating stories of people who have made this country. At the heart of The Figurine is Helena, who has dual Greek and Scottish heritage. Throughout her childhood, she spent many happy holidays with her grandmother in Greece. As an adult, she returns to the same apartment for a house clearance, lifting the lid on her family’s past and confronting her grandfather’s heinous past that includes political corruption, human extortion and the theft of priceless Greek artefacts. Readers willing to engage with Helena’s story will learn an extraordinary amount about twenty-first century Greece and the ethical and moral questions surrounding priceless cultural heritage. Warmly recommended, this is a novel that deserves a huge readership.
I wish to thank the publishers and NetGalley for the free ARC that enabled me to read this unique novel and to produce this unbiased book review.

Set in Oxford, London & Greece but quite a slow story which seemed to be used as a vehicle to promote the case of the Elgin marbles. I don’t have a problem with fiction having a ‘message’ but his was poorly wrapped in a very slow love story which I kept hoping would improve. Not up to Victoria Hislop’s usual storytelling standard.

It has been some time since I have read a novel by Victoria Hislop and sadly this one didn’t live up to the memories that I have of her previous novels. It was a very slow burn with an overly naive heroine. I enjoyed the descriptions of Greece and learnt a lot of its turbulence history . However I felt that it was overlong and I did almost give up at one point. The novel did pick up towards the end so I was glad I persevered and I felt it had some important things to say about art and culture. I think it is probably a marmite book and maybe just the right book but at the wrong time for me. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review

The Figurine is another good book from Victoria Hislop. I did not find it a quick book to read, rather a slow burner, that gathered pace towards the end. However, I found the history interesting and the author does a great job of transporting the reader to Greece. The cast of characters is varied and well described and developed.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.