Cartes Postales from Greece

            “Cartes Postales from Greece” is a beautiful tale about Greece, its people and magical places. Author of this book is Victoria Hislop, British novelist and author of the following books: “The Island”, “The Return”, “The Thread”, “The Last Dance and other Stories” and “The Sunrise”. The story begins when Ellie, a young girl who lives in London suddenly starts finding in her mailbox postcards from Greece signed with initial “A” and addressed to the S. Ibbotson. Postcards are arriving every week, and Ellie starts dreaming about places depicted on the postcards and decides to go to Greece for a holiday. While leaving for the airport, she finds in her mailbox a notebook. The notebook is also written by “A” and it documents his travels around Greece.

            On the first day of her holiday Ellie with guilt and reluctance starts reading the A’s notebook being fascinated by magical stories that A heard from people on his travel around Greece and by stories about his travel itself. The stories are about people, places, customs, culture, and tradition. Some of them are from the past and some of them are taiking place in present. Some of them are very unusual stories with surprising endings, but also stories about good and bad, love and hate. Sometimes love wins, sometimes not. These are also stories about lives filled with hate and desire for revenge that in end become wasted lives. These are also stories about very hospitable, generous and kind Greek people, but also about some small places that don’t welcome visitors and are not hospitable at all. These are stories about painful past of Greek people whose reminders are still vivid, but also about today’s economical crisis and unemployed young generation and their struggle to survive. Some of these stories are true, some are legend and some of them are fantasy.

            I had such a great time while reading this book. I enjoyed every story and I was trying to find every place that A mention to learn more about that place. Also, photographs of different places and people accompany this book so it’s very easy to imagine some place and to understand why A is admiring so much. I recommend this book to everyone, especially to people who love traveling and who love to know more about different countries: this is the story about Greece that you won’t find in any tourist agency. This book reminded me how important it is to use each moment in life and not to waste the time, to fill our hearts with love, without giving hatred. My favorite quote from this book is:

            “Tavli, as it’s known here, seems to me the best metaphor for how life works. Luck dictates how the dice land (maybe a double six, perhaps a one and a two), but then it’s down to the player to decide what happens next. At the moment, your fingers slide the counters from one triangle to the next, good fortune, skill, experience, wisdom, stupidity, carelessness and concentration can all play a role”.