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The Green Shore
by
Natalie Bakopoulos (Goodreads Author)
IN HER MASTERFUL DEBUT NOVEL, The Green Shore, award-winning writer NatalieBakopoulos vividly illuminates a seminal yet little-explored moment in Greek history: the 1967 military coup d’état, which ushered in a seven-year period of devastating brutality and repression. Through lyrical prose of wisdom and sophistication, we follow the adventures of one family, whose stories...more
Hardcover, 368 pages
Published
June 5th 2012
by Simon & Schuster
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I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was old enough in 1967; I should have known what was going on in the world. But a military coup in Greece wasn't on my radar, and even if it had been, I don't think I would have been able to really understand how the world could change so dramatically from one day to the next. This book allowed me to see the effects of this change on one family. Fearing the knock on the door, the stranger walking down the street, the family member who's suddenly unaccounted for....more
This gorgeous story takes place in Greece in the 1960s and 70s, and follows the members of a family over the course of a decade whose defining event is the 1967 coup when Greek's military "colonels" seized power. From the parents' generation, we meet Eleni, a widowed mother and Mihalis, her poet brother, who experiences political upheaval before during and after WWII. Sisters Anna and Sophie deal with the changes in Greece and in their family in different ways, but what makes this novel so compe...more
I admit it, I judge books by their covers and this cover was just so beautiful! And it was about a period in time that I remember hearing about on the news but was too young to really have any idea what was going on - a military coup in Greece but mostly what I remember are those Greek names being tossed about, the Papandreous and Popadouplos (and I quite possible spelled those wrong despite having read them many times over), they seemed like delightful tongue twister names to a child. My parent...more
I read a good review of this book in Entertainment Weekly, and I was intrigued by the author's last name. This turned out to be a fascinating book about a period in Greek history I knew nothing about: the 1967 military coup that lasted until 1974. The story follows the members of one family during this time. Eleni is a doctor who was widowed a number of years ago. She and her husband, Christos, had been activists. Eleni's brother, Mihalis, is a poet and still activist who has been jailed several...more
I really, really wanted to love this book. There are so many things about it that make it appealing to me. First, it's set in Greece, opening at a party in a neighborhood I lived in, with a character who teaches at the school I taught at. Second, it's set around an interesting historical event, the 1960s coup in Greece, that is not often written about, particularly in fiction. Third, it's told from multiple perspectives, which is a style I enjoy.
However, in the end, I merely liked it. I kept wa...more
However, in the end, I merely liked it. I kept wa...more
I may have been vaguely aware of the coup staged by the military junta in Greece in 1967, but like most Americans I was too preoccupied with Vietnam to pay much attention to Europe.
The North Shore brings that period to life, and the effects of the coup were, in my opinion, the strongest part of the novel. Military rule was brutal, and the regime engaged in extensive torture. Doctors were forbidden to treat torture victims after their release; however, one of the main characters, Eleni, is a wido...more
The North Shore brings that period to life, and the effects of the coup were, in my opinion, the strongest part of the novel. Military rule was brutal, and the regime engaged in extensive torture. Doctors were forbidden to treat torture victims after their release; however, one of the main characters, Eleni, is a wido...more
This first novel by a Greek American author depicts the responses of four family members, ordinary citizens, to the military coup in Greece in 1967 and to the repressive years that followed. Told from the points of view of these four characters, a widowed mother who is a physician, her two daughters, and her poet brother, the book traces their thoughts and actions related to the dictatorship, their relationships with each other and, most importantly for the plot, the partners they are involved w...more
I read a review of this book that begins with the words ...." I really wanted to love this book, but...." Wow, they took the words right out of my mouth ! I only liked this book.The problem with this book was that one never seems to get close enough to the characters. The writing is a bit wooden and the characters never seem to come alive.
I loved in Athens during this exact same period as the story in the book. I was a junior in high school ( in Halandri) and the day that the colonels took over...more
I loved in Athens during this exact same period as the story in the book. I was a junior in high school ( in Halandri) and the day that the colonels took over...more
The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos is a historical fiction novel that follows the effects of the military coup d'etat in 1967. While not a well-known historical movement, or at least one I didn't have knowledge of, it devastated much of Greece (mostly Athens) for many years. A coup d'etat is the sudden, illegal takeover of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to depose the extant government and replace it with another body, civil or...more
I loved this book. Maybe it even deserves five stars. I loved the family story, the backdrop of the years of the junta in Greece (during the 60's). The story is told from several perspectives--Eleni, the mother, her daughter Sofie, another daughter, Anna, and Eleni's brother, Mihailis. All are activists in some way, and I kept waiting for tragedy. I felt that the family lived a fairly privileged life, and I wondered about what Greece was like during this time for those who weren't so well off, b...more
This was a book I won from Good Reads, my first one! It happens to be on topic that interests me; Greek stuff:) The author takes us back to the late sixties, early seventies in Greece, during the Junta government. Her characters are a family, a widow with her three children. The author does a great job with character development, I felt like I knew all of them pretty well by the end of the book. There is enough information for someone who is familiar with Athens to feel like they were there as w...more
In clicking through the reviews, I fear I’ve read an entirely different book, because I see so many five star reviews. Natalie Bakopoulos’ debut novel, The Green Shore, details the experiences in the life of one family during the turbulent military junta in Greece between the late 1960s and early 1970s.
I wanted to like this book, because I am a lover of historical fiction and I was not familiar with this particular aspect in Greek history, so I was eager to learn more. However, this story just...more
I wanted to like this book, because I am a lover of historical fiction and I was not familiar with this particular aspect in Greek history, so I was eager to learn more. However, this story just...more
There is much to love in this debut novel -- interesting characters whose lives are set against the backdrop of Greece in the 60's and 70's when a military coup installs a repressive government junta and artists and intellectuals are under attack. The writing is lovely, the setting compelling.
The novel is told in various points of view and as the novel unfolds, I was swept up by each character's story line -- Eleni and her children: Sophie, Taki, and Anna; Eleni's poet brother Mihalis and his w...more
The novel is told in various points of view and as the novel unfolds, I was swept up by each character's story line -- Eleni and her children: Sophie, Taki, and Anna; Eleni's poet brother Mihalis and his w...more
Before I picked this book up, I had little idea of the turbulence that swept through Greece during the late 60's to the late 70's. The story begins on the night of the military coup and recounts the experiences of three women and one man, all from the same family. Sophie, Anna, their mother Eleni and her brother Mihalis. Each resists the junta's oppressive regime in their own ways. Sophie and her left-leaning boyfriend commit secretive acts of rebellion until he is arrested and she flees to Fran...more
Originally posted on futuresfading.
The Green Shore, by Natalie Bakopoulos, is the story of a family living through the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. While most of the country sleeps, Greece suddenly changes. A group of colonels stage a coup d’etat and seize control of government. Eleni and Mihalis, Anna and Sophie, now live in a very different world.
At the start of this novel, it seems to me that Mihalis, a poet and past revolutionary, struggles with how to react. A part of him wants to ac...more
The Green Shore, by Natalie Bakopoulos, is the story of a family living through the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. While most of the country sleeps, Greece suddenly changes. A group of colonels stage a coup d’etat and seize control of government. Eleni and Mihalis, Anna and Sophie, now live in a very different world.
At the start of this novel, it seems to me that Mihalis, a poet and past revolutionary, struggles with how to react. A part of him wants to ac...more
A gorgeous, sweeping, intensely satisfying novel! Set during the military junta in Greece (1967-1974), Bakopoulos tells the story of a family who each tries to cope with the oppressive regime in their own way. Eleni, a mother and doctor, secretly treats the victims of torture, which the government has made forbidden. Sophie, the oldest daughter, flees to Paris after her revolutionary activities make her a person of interest, and she must try to fight for her country from afar. Mihalis, Sophie’s...more
I received this as part of a First Reads giveaway. Here is my review:
It Just Runs in the Family
The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos (Simon & Schuster; 368 pages; $25).
Good writing must run in the Bakopoulos family. Brother and sister, Dean and Natalie Bakopoulos have written three books between them. Dean is the author of Please Don't Come Back from the Moon (2004) and My American Unhappiness (2011). This year, Natalie joins her brother with the release of her lush and picturesque debut Th...more
It Just Runs in the Family
The Green Shore by Natalie Bakopoulos (Simon & Schuster; 368 pages; $25).
Good writing must run in the Bakopoulos family. Brother and sister, Dean and Natalie Bakopoulos have written three books between them. Dean is the author of Please Don't Come Back from the Moon (2004) and My American Unhappiness (2011). This year, Natalie joins her brother with the release of her lush and picturesque debut Th...more
This novel is putatively about the military coup in Greece in 1967 and of the torture of the civilians in the resistance. By the end of the book, I realized that there were only about 3 pates (out of 348) that said anything about the coup or the political issues, and there was less than 10 pages about torture. Of those pages, nothing was told in a compelling manner. This story isn't even about life in Greece, as after reading it, I did not get the feeling as though I had even an inkling about li...more
This first came to my attention because the writer is a Michigander and was also a guest for the National Writers Series. Bakopoulos is a smart and charming person. She's written a dynamite book about the revolution in Greece in the sixties, and it was well-received even in Greece. Although smart & intelligent, I didn't finish the book. Was it because the youngest of the siblings is having an affair with her married professor? The doom of the relationsip was just too, too looming for me.
Pers...more
Pers...more
It was good but I felt like the book never went anywhere. The plot seemed non existent and the time lapses only added confusion. What started out as a book focused on characters fighting against a revolution became more about them settling into a dictatorship. The characters who were the most antagonistic in the beginning seemed resigned to life by the end of the novel. Where as the characters who were timid were more prone to acts of nonviolent resistance. The over all message to get from this...more
Very well-written and I liked the different points of view. But the daily events of characters in the novel struggled to keep up with the 7-year duration. Sometimes, not all 4 main characters were covered well enough in each year or time span. An interesting--different and unexpected--take on family, relationship, and political values and ideals, and how a regime can affect one on the personal level. The overarching theme of the story, beyond the historical facts, is just that: how one grows, ch...more
I won a copy of this book as a First Reads giveaway.
In 1967, the Greek government was taken over by the military in a coup d’etat, and for seven years the country was ruled by a violent and oppressive military dictatorship. The Green Shore takes place during this dictatorship and follows one family over almost its complete duration: widowed mother Eleni, her brother Mihalis, and her daughters Sophie and Anna. Each of these characters finds their own way to fight the dictatorship and to go on liv...more
In 1967, the Greek government was taken over by the military in a coup d’etat, and for seven years the country was ruled by a violent and oppressive military dictatorship. The Green Shore takes place during this dictatorship and follows one family over almost its complete duration: widowed mother Eleni, her brother Mihalis, and her daughters Sophie and Anna. Each of these characters finds their own way to fight the dictatorship and to go on liv...more
"As historical fiction, it powerfully renders the excruciating tension of life under the Colonels, who banned “Western decadence” and freedom of thought. Seamlessly entwined, the two strands reveal much about history, memory, citizenship, diaspora, and the ties that bind family and nation." - Michele Levy, North Carolina A&T University
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/18bRVtk
This book was reviewed in the May 2013 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our site: http://bit.ly/18bRVtk
This book is first-rate. Absolutely engaging from beginning to end. I picked this up at random, and I'm so grateful that I did. Natalie Bakopoulos is a first-time novelist, and I believe she will go on to have a great career. The Green Shore deals with a period in the history of Greece, 1967-1973, about which I knew next to nothing. The military took over the government and created a dictatorship. However, the actual coup is not the driving force of Bakopoulos's novel. Instead, she focuses on fo...more
This novel is set at the beginning of Greece's military dictatorship in 1967 and follows one family as they live and try to survive in the government that was in power til 1975. It explores not only family relations; how they lived, continued with their daily lives, and resisted the government and rules imposed on them, but it also shows what it was like to live in a society strictly controlled and terrorized by the dictatorship. I won this story from goodreads and was fascinated to read about t...more
There are four parts to this book...."Part One" had a very hard time holding my interest, and I'll be honest I struggled for several days to get through it. I just felt that there were too many Greek words (without definitions) to be able to follow along. However, once I hit "Part Two", the book literally sped along. This was a wonderful story about political unrest, family bonds and ties being tested and strengthened, and growing up in an unsettling time. I really enjoyed the last 3/4 of the bo...more
I trudged through this book but was disappointed in this local author. She writes well, but the book lacked a "wow" factor that I kept looking for during the story. It's historical fiction genre was lacking as well. Yes, the characters' lives took place during this coup in Greece, but I did not learn much about this event in history. A historical fiction book should teach me something about the history or event which this book did not do.
This book kept me engaged, but I can't really say I 100% liked it down at the end. I would have preferred to get a story that focused on the mother and her story working with the underground clinic. Sometimes the kids just pissed me off, made bad choices and I found myself not caring about what happened to them. I only liked the characters who seemed to be more on the periphery, and their stories weren't even fully dealt with. That sort of pissed me off. Oh well, a nice read anyway about an era...more
I received this book from a Goodreads giveaway, and while I found it to be a slow start I really am glad I finished it. It follows the story of a family torn and reunited due to the regime change in Greece from 1967 through 1973. What I liked about the book is how it followed the various characters and their struggles both personal and political during a time of occupation. Eleni and Sophie we're my favorites, but it was also interesting reading how the characters developed throughout a time whe...more
It is not the best-written book, but it has moments that can take your breath away. Some of the descriptions of Greece are so evocative, it feels like you are there. I think the subject of the junta could have been better-developed, but, on the other hand, it is the story of a family during the regime, not the story of the regime. I definitely enjoyed reading it, and will be on the lookout for other books by this author.
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