Corelli's Mandolin

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Summary: This book personifies the beauty of the written word.
Review: This book, one of the best I've read, shows what a talented author can do with words. I found myself in acute shock when the book ended: I wasn't ready for the characters to leave my life. After a page or two, I stopped being a reader and became a family member. To have the book end was like suddently not being able to talk to your sister anymore. If only the book was 500 pages longer

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Summary: Felt fortunate to have read the book.
Review: I recently read the Greek version of this book having received it as a gift in the mail from one of my aunts on Cephallonia. Both of my parents are from the island, and having spent most of my vacations there over the past ten years I have often heard about the years the book deals with from various people in my parents' village. I must confess that the author has captured the spirit of the people so well, that it is hard to believe that someone from the island had not written it. The characters are very believable and I feel fortunate to have read it. I have recommended the book to others with the hope that they will enjoy the story as much as I did

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Summary: The beauty of the soul & the compromises made in spite of it
Review: An incredible compilation of moments and feelings that restored my idealisms of love, family, culture and heritage. A keeper

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Summary: Stellar achievement by a new author!
Review: In Corelli's Mandolin, Louis De Bernieres has created characters so vital and compelling, that his book becomes a journey through the gamut of human experience and emotion, rather than mere words on paper. De Bernieres's first novel transports us through time to a wacky village on a Greek Island during war time, and through war ravaged Europe. We feel our feet grow cold and rotten in the trenches, we feel giddy with joy and longing during spring festivals, and we grieve over our lost love as we grow old with resignation. A young and brilliant master, Louis De Bernieres's vivid imagery should be watched with heart-pounding anticipation and a twinkle in the eyes

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Summary: You'll laugh, you'll cry, you won't hurl.
Review: Just one more voice to add to the chorus of approbation for this book. Buy two copies, one for you and one to lend

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Summary: INCREDIBLE!!!
Review: What a lovely week it has been -- curling up every night with "Corelli's Mandolin". I'm sorry the book had to end, because I was thoroughly enjoying my evenings in Cephallonia. Now I can't bring myself to start on another book, because I'm afraid I'll be let down after reading this perfect piece of work! Mr. de Bernieres, how about a sequel? I don't want Capt. Corelli out of my life.....

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Summary: Corelli Comes Alive
Review: I have just finished this book this morning and am already yearning to be with the inhabitants of Cephallonia again. The characters in the new book I have picked up seem flat and dull to me. I am still amazed that the author was able to tell such a coherant and stunning tale in so many voices, using so many different tones and techniques. "Corelli's Mandolin" is a really great piece of work and a wonderful story. Do read it

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Summary: DeBernieres sees into the Greek soul
Review: CORELLI'S MANDOLIN was recommended to me by a Cephalonian Greek "exiled" in Athens. This is itself unusual. In my 20+ years of experience with Greeks and Greece, books about Greece by non-Greeks are usually dismissed, if not reviled. CORELLI'S MANDOLIN is evocative of post-war Greek life and experience in ways which are immediately recognizable by those who know it. Yet the characters and the story are so compelling that you need not know Greece or Cephalonia to care about them and the progress of their lives

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Summary: They just don't get any better than this!
Review: This was the most beautifully written book I have ever read - and contains my favorite character, for whom the book is named. There is so much to this book - mainly the many relationships: father-daughter; boy-girl; boy-boy; the community on the small Greek Island. The insights into the mind of Mussolini were incredible. After reading this book I have been unable to find anything quite so satisfying (first read in 1994) - so I re-read it!! It holds up again

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Summary: Best book of the 1990s
Review: I'd give Corelli's Mandolin a 10, but you've got to leave room for something better - as difficult as it is to believe that something better is going to come along. Louis de Bernieres's story of doomed love on an occupied Greek island during the Second World War is written in an unpretentious but unabashed classic style. It's very proper without a snuff of stuffiness. The juxtaposition of black humour and brutal violence is stark and enormously effective. I put Corelli's Mandolin (which, I note, was titled "Captain Corelli's Mandolin" in Canada and the U.K.)alongside the best books I've ever read: Watership Down, Animal Farm, Lord of the Rings, The Peaceable Kingdom. I also strongly recommend de Bernieres' earlier books - The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts, and Senor Viva and the Coca Lord. Each is an excellent read and a worthy predecessor to Corelli's Mandolin - a masterful work of beauty and brutality, set in irresistably lyrical writing. I fear you may be discouraged by my unbridled superlatives. I apologize. Read the book, and you'll understand. Peter Simpson