From the Bookshelf of Never too Late to Read Classics…

The Balkan Trilogy

Olivia Manning

Start date: October 1, 2023

Finish date: December 31, 2023

Discussion: The Hefty Classics

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What Members Thought

May 08, 2009 Laura rated it really liked it

Shelves: hf-world-war-ii, romania, read-2011, balkans

Somewhere near Venice, Guy began talking wit a heavy, elderly man, a refugee from Germany on this way to Trieste. Guy asked questions. The refugee eagerly replied. Neither seemed aware when the train stopped.

page 81:
"Today Rumania with broken heart announces the tragic loss of her much loved son and Premier A. Calinescu, assassinated by six students who failed to pass their baccalaureate. While attempting to forgive this mad act of disappointed youth, the nation is prostrate with grief."

page 8 ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jul 29, 2011 John rated it it was amazing

This is a terrific set of three books set against the backdrop of Romania, and then Greece, in the early part of World War II. It is a perceptive character study and a realistic and unsentimental analysis of the nature of a young couple's marriage. At the same time, it provides a fascinating picture of the situation in Eastern Europe in war torn Bucharest and then Greece and is a hugely compelling read.

The books are important to me on a personal level also. My grandparents were themselves a youn ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 28, 2022 Christine PNW rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This got better and better, with an ending that was pyrotechnically immersive.

War is clarifying; the good get better, the brave get braver, and the really awful get worse and worse and worse until they are diminished into caricatures of themselves. Stunning.

I can't wait to read the next trilogy - luckily, it sits on my bookshelf, recently arrived from the NYRB flash 40% off booksale. ...more

1 like · Like · see review