Editors Reads Verdict
Hislop's most politically complex novel — a Greek family's story across sixty years of occupation, civil war, and dictatorship, told with her characteristic emotional directness.
What We Loved
- The WWII occupation famine material is rendered with genuine weight
- The political complexity of the Greek left-right divide is handled honestly
- Themis is her most fully developed female protagonist
Minor Drawbacks
- The scope across sixty years means some periods feel compressed
- The civil war sections may be unfamiliar to non-Greek readers
Key Takeaways
- → The WWII famine in Greece — one of the war's most underreported catastrophes
- → The Greek civil war as a wound that shaped the country for decades
- → How political division fractures families
| Author | Victoria Hislop |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Headline |
| Pages | 448 |
| Published | January 1, 2019 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Readers visiting Athens; fans of Greek history; WWII historical fiction readers |
Athens, 1941. The German flag flies over the Acropolis. The occupation begins with looting and ends with famine — a winter in which tens of thousands of Athenians starve on the streets of their city, while the occupiers eat well. Themis, a teenager from a bourgeois Athens family, watches her city transform and her family fracture along the lines of politics that have divided Greece for decades: her grandmother is a monarchist, her brother a Communist, and the coming civil war will make these positions fatal.
Those Who Are Loved spans sixty years of Greek history — from the occupation through the civil war that follows liberation, through the junta years of the 1960s and 1970s, to the democracy that emerges. It is Hislop’s most politically complex novel, and the one that engages most directly with the specific trauma of twentieth-century Greek history, which was not simply German occupation but the subsequent years in which Greeks killed each other in a civil war that NATO and the British backed one side of.
Themis — the novel’s protagonist across all these decades — joins the resistance, is imprisoned, loses people she loves, and survives to old age with the memory of all of it. She is the most fully realised female protagonist in Hislop’s work.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Those Who Are Loved" about?
Athens, 1941. The German occupation begins, and with it the great famine in which hundreds of thousands of Greeks die. Themis, a young woman from a divided Athens family — some Communist, some right-wing, all suffering — lives through the occupation, the resistance, the civil war that follows, and the decades of political fracture that define 20th-century Greek history. Hislop's most politically complex novel, spanning sixty years of Greek history.
Who should read "Those Who Are Loved"?
Readers visiting Athens; fans of Greek history; WWII historical fiction readers
What are the key takeaways from "Those Who Are Loved"?
The WWII famine in Greece — one of the war's most underreported catastrophes The Greek civil war as a wound that shaped the country for decades How political division fractures families
Is "Those Who Are Loved" worth reading?
Hislop's most politically complex novel — a Greek family's story across sixty years of occupation, civil war, and dictatorship, told with her characteristic emotional directness.
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