This was quite amazing! Entertaining and educational! I learned a lot about Greece post-world war 2. I learned about Greek politics. Most importantly I discovered the nuances and importance of Ancient Greek artefacts. It made me feel quite apologetic about the looting/ brazen thefts over the years - disappointingly including the British establishment.

The plot and character development was most interesting as the reader was enabled to see a young girl growing up and coping so well with multi-cultural influence during her life!

This is a beautifully written book, with vivid settings as its main strength. It is very much a story in two halves, both interesting, but the plot doesn't really get going until the second half. I enjoyed the time Helena spent in Greece as a child but there is perhaps too much information given to the reader that leaves us in no doubt how much research went into it. Once it becomes more about the characters, it moves quickly. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know all the people in Helena's life as an adult - both in the UK and in Greece. The story itself unwinds at a perfect pace and keeps the reader invested. Overall I think it's a great read and would definitely recommend it.

I always enjoy Victoria Hislop's books. The Island is a favourite and although this doesn't quite live up to that one, it is still a great read. I always learn so much from her books and they make me go away and read further myself. Her settings are so well drawn and, with strong plots and characters, you really feel present in the story.

This latest novel by Victoria Hislop deals with the illegal selling of artifacts found in Greece and the surrounding islands, both in the past and in the present. Running through this is a potted history of Greek history from the beginning of the 20th century to the current day. Well researched but slightly long winded in places.
Thank you to NetGalley and Headline for the advance copy of this book.

I enjoyed the latest novel from Victoria Hislop, which, as per previous novels, was based in Greece. The story revolved around Helena, against two timelines, her childhood where she spent many summers visiting her grandparents in Athens, and in her adult life where she is finding her way through her relationships following the death of her mother.

The story, as ever, is immaculately researched and focuses on the consequences of life under the Junta, the right wing military dictatorship of the late sixties and early seventies. It also deals with the impact of theft of Greek artifacts and touches on the story of the Elgin Marbles.

Unlike 'The Island' and her other novels, this book had a more modern feel, although it still oozed plenty of charm, and offered drama. I would recommend this novel to fans of Victoria Hislop and I think it would be the perfect companion for a summer's day on a Greek beach.

Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The Figurine

It’s 1968 and 8 year old Helena McCloud is travelling alone for the first time to Athens to stay with her maternal grandparents. A chauffeur meets her and takes her to their flat where she meets her grandmother, Eleni Papagiannis and her husband the intimidating General. He is a stern disciplinarian and is not afraid to smack Helen when he sees fit especially when she opens boxes that have been sent to him containing strange objects.
It’s the year after the coup by the military junta and they are very firmly I charge. Helen’s mother, Mary, left Greed because of the repression and the terrible bloody acts that happened because of it. She fled to England where she met and married Hamish and settled down in Suffolk.
Helen returns to Athens several times as she grows up, always alone, but she makes friends with Dina the maid and they sneak out to watch the moon landings in a local café. Helen also meets Arsenis, her uncle, to whom she takes an instant dislike. He will play a larger part in her adult life than she wants him to.
Helena sees the visits as exploring her heritage as she is half Greek but they stop when her grandparents both die. She grows up, goes to Oxford University and meets Nick. He is her first serious boyfriend and she falls in love with him. She returns to Greece with him to take part in archaeological digs. It’s on one of these visits that she becomes aware of the activities of the local grave robbers, or Archiopoli as they are called, as the team explore an ancient cemetery. Professor Carver, who is in charge, reminds them that artifacts often disappear and are sold for huge sums. When Helena finds a figurine hidden in her rucksack by Nick she confronts him. It’s the end of their relationship and when she inherits her grandparents apartment she discovers, while clearing it out, evidence that looted antiquities were being used to fund war crimes by the General. It’s the true cost of stealing from the dead. Helena becomes determined to stop it and bring the chain of grave robbers and buyers to an end. She has had to acknowledge her own family’s role in events and wants to, in her own way, put things right and it became almost a heist towards the end as the figurine came up for auction in London.
This was a sun drenched novel that discusses Greece’s past over the last 20 years, not just its ancient history but its more recent past and this gives it a broad backdrop. I was aware of the military dictatorship and the 1974 war with Cyprus but not so much about the brutality. The author has done her research and describes the landscapes, the food, regional delicacies, the people with vivid imagery and the book really came alive.
The theme of the smuggling of antiquities was an interesting one to explore especially in the recent publicity about countries wanting some of their looted treasures returned. They are not just stolen objects but an important part of that country’s history which has been taken. The route of the stolen treasure to auction houses and collectors was well described.
Although at some points I felt that the book was a little overlong and the pace slowed as aresult, I did enjoy it as it had interesting themes and subplots. Previously I have read ‘Cartes Postale’ by the same author and enjoyed that so I was keen to read her latest. This would be a terrific holiday read especially if you were in Greece.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an ARC.

This Book explores how many of the great 20th century Artists were inspired by the Simple Beauty & Primitive form of the Cycladic Figurine. Also the theft of cultural treasures & how Con -Artists & other greedy people who falsify the provenance of historic articles & in doing so then dismiss our full understanding of Civilisation . This is a world that a young 8 year old Helena eventually finds herself engulfed. It teaches us a lot about the Ancient artefacts & how they shape our lives even today. I learnt lots about the turmoil of political life in Greece & why in 1973 my husband & I were not allowed by the MOD to go to Athens for our Honeymoon. This book is full of love & wonderful characters both Good & Bad. I enjoyed from beginning to end & will highly recommend it to some of my friends. #NetGalley, #GoodReads, #Amazon.co.uk, #FB, #Instagram, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/8a5b541512e66ae64954bdaab137035a5b2a89d2" width="80" height="80" alt="200 Book Reviews" title="200 Book Reviews"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/ef856e6ce35e6d2d729539aa1808a5fb4326a415" width="80" height="80" alt="Reviews Published" title="Reviews Published"/>, #<img src="https://www.netgalley.com/badge/aa60c7e77cc330186f26ea1f647542df8af8326a" width="80" height="80" alt="Professional Reader" title="Professional Reader"/>.

I don’t often give up on a book and have really enjoyed Victoria Hislop’s books in the past but I just couldn’t finish this one. There seemed to be little substance to the story, the characters were either moustache-twirling villains or saccharinely sweet and, for me, it was rambling, and well, not very expressively or intelligently written. Perhaps it would work as young teenage fiction, with good triumphing evil and everyone being jolly nice and jolly earnest, but I couldn’t stomach the cardboard characters and the lack of action.

This book can be read as a love letter to Greece as much as it is a plea to return all the loot stolen from Greek soil – the spoils of Colonialism as well as the many objects obtained through the greed of individuals.

The book also deals with other big themes like loss, grief, love, betrayal and intergenerational trauma and guilt through the coming-of-age story of its main character, Helena, daughter of a Greek mother and Scottish father. Helena’s mum cut all her links to her parents and her mother country and Helena therefore grew up with hardly any awareness of her Greek heritage. Following an invitation from her gran, her mother reluctantly allows the 8-year-old Helena to visit her grandparents in Athens. She is young and naïve and has little understanding of the Greek politics at the time, where a military junta was in power. She does however develop feelings of unease when she experiences contemporary Greek politics first hand. Maturing and with growing political awareness she begins to understand her mother’s feelings towards her home country and comes face to face with the sins of her grandparents and everything they represented.

Her actions, based on her desire to right some of her grand-dad’s wrongdoings, turn the book into a crime story, with a good measure of love, betrayal and personal loss thrown in.
Everything is spelled out in this book and very little is left to the reader’s own imagination. If this is something you don’t mind, you are in for a good read.

I am grateful to NetGalley and Headline Publishing Group for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Helena inherits her grandparents apartment in Athens but it brings back memories of past holidays with her cruel grandfather and his part in the military dictatorship.
Going through the apartment she finds treasures and artefacts that belonged to her grandfather but at what price.
She starts to take an interest in the past and the archeology of the Greek people. Can she right the actions of her grandfather and his counterparts? and at what cost to herself.
Another page turner! Loved it!

5++++

It was in 1968 that Helena McCloud made her first trip to Greece. She was alone: her mother, Greek by birth, had left the family home and refused to return, but Mary and Hamish (Helena's parents) felt that it would be a pity if Helena grew up without knowing her grandparents or understanding her Greek heritage. Her trip to the family apartment in up-market Kolonaki would be the first of several annual visits. She grew to love her grandmother and the family's maid, Dina, but was wary - and frightened - of her grandfather, retired general Stamatis Papagiannis. He was proud of his close connections to the Junta and expected his family to uphold his values but saw no reason to accommodate them. His prejudices included Helena's red hair and green eyes - inherited from her father's Scottish ancestors.

At the end of her third year at Oxford, Helena encountered charismatic Nick Hayes-Jones: the attraction was instant and mutual. It led to her joining him on a dig on an Aegean island. Particularly treasured as artefacts (by both archaeologists and looters) are Cycladic figurines. Many years after first going to Greece, Helena inherits her grandparents' apartment. It's difficult not to be reminded of her grandfather's close connections with the cruel military regime. Questions arise when she discovers a vast range of antiquities and valuable objects. What human price was paid for them - and how can matters be put right?

Victoria Hislop's love of Greece shines through every page of this book. She has a particular talent for bringing to life the tumultuous events of the second half of the twentieth century. In the late nineteen-sixties, I wanted to take my daughter to Athens, but the political situation put me off. Finally, in 1973, we went. Athens was slightly uneasy but elsewhere, getting tourism back on track seemed to matter more than politics. As I stood in the departure lounge at the airport, I felt we would return soon. A week later, had we stood in the same spot, we would have been in the middle of a massacre. No - Greece was not safe. As I read about 1973 in The Figurine, I was back there in the dusty streets of Athens, out on the coast and lamenting the fact that Greece could always break my heart.

The plot is excellent. I knew what I wanted to happen and Hislop delivers a story that's satisfying but never predictable. It takes real skill to combine a compelling story with real events and to bring both off the page in such a convincing way. I never sensed that history had been revised to suit the story. The characters help, of course. They have subtlety and depth.

I've found an additional pleasure in this book. I usually find myself waiting for my favourite authors to write their next book but this is my first Hislop. She has a back catalogue which I am going to thoroughly enjoy. I'd like to thank the authors for letting Bookbag have a review copy.

Helena inherits her grandparents wonderful apartment in Athens but she will fond it comes at a personal and emotional cost!

She remembers all of the summers she spent at her grandparents, learning the ways and the language of Greece. Also she fears her grandfather, he is a formidable character during the time of brutal dictatorship, of which he takes a very active part! Additionally she is also subjected to her uncle's favour, as he shows her around the local museums and historical sites.

Now that the apartment is hers, she spends time sorting things out and comes across various artefacts and also books detailing transactions and what her grandfather exchanged for these treasures, some at human cost!

She remembers fondly her grandmother and also the housekeeper Dina but all that she finds seem part of a very worrying past for the family. Helena is determined to find out what/how all of this was acquired and at what cost! She also develops her love of archaeology and also her love of Athens and Greece.

How she does this involves new friendships, confidence in her beliefs and standards. She is determined to make amends for the sins of her grandfather and the story weaves history, fact and love wonderfully. It made me do a little research into the history of Athens and it's political past.

A welcome new book from Victoria; I loved it!!

There seem to be a lot of people that really loved book. It was a nice read but I found the writing to be quite simplistic and the plot line I found very cliched and predictable. From the moment certain characters appeared, you knew where the story was going. All a bit disappointing

I should start by confessing to never have read her most famous book 'The Island', despite it being recommended to me years ago. . When the opportunity to read this book came up I was curious, and loved it! As far as historical fiction goes I learnt quite a few new things about Greek history, including the fact that the partition of Cyprus was a consequence of the Greek military invading the Island 5 days before the Turkish army. I live in Haringey, where many displaced Turks and Heels from Cyprus came, and always believed that the Turkush invaded first!

The story itself covers about 20 years, following Helen, whose mother is Greek and whose father is Scottish. It starts when she is a child and is sent to visit her grandparents in Athens for the first time. It follows family tragedy, university, adventure and the looting of antiquities. I found myself reading it when I should hand been asleep, on the bus and all weekend. Its a wonderful book, and I'm now finally going to read 'The Island' and possibly her other books too.

I’ve always enjoyed this authors novels. She captures the essence of Greece giving an insight into its history and also weaves in a beautiful tale. On this occasion, we focus on the questionable acquisitions of cultural treasures. We start off in a time when Greece was under military dictatorship and Helena was a child visiting her beloved yiayia in Athens. Upon her grandparents deaths, Helena eventually inherits their apartment and along with it a vast array of valuable objects and antiquities. But how were they acquired and what human price was paid for them? Alongside new friends Haris and Anna, Helena is determined to find answers and seek justice. This novel is beautifully written and I was totally enthralled from the start. Page after page, it’s so easy to immerse yourself as the plot unfolds. Thank you to NetGalley, Headline and the author for the chance to review.

In her true style, Victoria Hislop transported me to Greece along with the charismatic Helena, on her eventful journey, as she grows from a delightful, curious child into an admirable,independent young woman.
Historical facts ( which often surprise, inform and inspire me to find out more) woven with credible fictional characters and descriptions which immerse so deeply, I felt as though I was walking through the streets in Athens, stopping to savour the aroma of the strong bitter coffee.
The Figurine ticks all my boxes!

I can imagine this being a great holiday read with the sights and food of Greece. It is a great idea for a book about where artefacts belong and the complex history that can surround them.

At over 500 pages though I felt it was too long for the amount of plot, most of which is described in the blurb. There aren't many twists and I would've liked some more depth to the story and themes.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

As a child, Helena travels to Greece during the Summer to visit her grandparents. Whilst she builds a relationship with her grandmother, she is weary of her stern grandfather, who used to be high up in the military. When both grandparents die she is left their house and possessions, becoming fully aware of her grandfather’s terrible actions and lasting legacy in the community. With the help of friends she tries to right the wrongs of the past.

I would recommend for fans of Victoria Hislop and Greek sociocultural history. I really love the first half of this book. It is very similar in style to Victoria Hislop’s other writing. The descriptions of the areas and use of the Greek language lend a feel of authenticity. However, whilst I enjoyed learning about the history of Greece’s culture and the impact of looting in the second half, I found the relationships and dialogue between the characters quite forced.

The detail and knowledge of Greece in this book means I could easily imagine myself in the city of Athens and living Helena’s life through her eyes.
This is very much a book of 2 halves, with the plot only really developing in the second half. A lot of the first part could have been cut down (in my opinion), to allow more focus on the story as it developed later on.
The book is packed full of historical and archaeological references, making this a fascinating story.
Definitely worth reading, especially if you’re in Athens at the time!

I usually enjoy Victoria Hislop books but found this to be a bit of a drag. The descriptions of Greece when Helena was a child were vivid and really drew me in. The storyline when Helena is an adult was ok but I just felt that there were points when I thought the story could have been told a bit quicker and the book could have been shorter.