It's my turn on the Blogtour The Figurine by Victoria Hislop.
About the Author
Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote The Island in 2005. It became an international bestseller, has sold more than 6 million copies and was turned into a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra.
Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, and in the number one bestseller The Return she wrote about the painful secrets of its civil war. In The Thread, Victoria returned to Greece to tell the turbulent tale of Thessaloniki and its people across the twentieth century. Shortlisted for a British Book Award, it confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller.
Her fourth novel, The Sunrise, about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and the enduring ghost town of Famagusta, was a Sunday Times number one bestseller. Cartes Postales from Greece, fiction illustrated with photographs, was a Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and one of the biggest selling books of 2016.
The poignant and powerful Those Who Are Loved, was a Sunday Times number one hardback bestseller in 2019 and explores a tempestuous period of modern Greek history through the eyes of a complex and compelling heroine.
Victoria's most recent novel, One August Night, returned to Crete in the long-anticipated sequel to The Island. It spent twelve weeks in the Top 10 hardback fiction charts.
Her books have been translated into forty languages and Victoria was executive producer on the adaptations of three of her novels for Greek television.
Victoria divides her time between England and Greece and in 2020, was granted honorary citizenship by the President of Greece. She was recently appointed patron of Knossos 2025, which is raising funds for a new research centre at one of Greece's most significant archaeological sites. She is also on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles.
Victoria was recently granted an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Sheffield. Follow @VicHislop on X (the artist formerly known as Twitter)
About the book
In her irresistible new novel, Sunday Times No 1 bestselling author Victoria Hislop shines a light on the questionable acquisition of cultural treasures and the price people - and countries - will pay to cling on to them.
Of all the ancient art that captures the imagination, none is more appealing than the Cycladic figurine. An air of mystery swirls around these statuettes from the Bronze Age and they are highly sought after by collectors - and looters - alike.
When Helena inherits her grandparents' apartment in Athens, she is overwhelmed with memories of the summers she spent there as a child, when Greece was under a brutal military dictatorship. Her remote, cruel grandfather was one of the regime's generals and as she sifts through the dusty rooms, Helena discovers an array of valuable objects and antiquities. How did her grandfather amass such a trove? What human price was paid for them?
Helena's desire to find answers about her heritage dovetails with a growing curiosity for archaeology, ignited by a summer spent with volunteers on a dig on an Aegean island. Their finds fuel her determination to protect the precious fragments recovered from the baked earth - and to understand the origins of her grandfather's collection. Helena's attempt to make amends for some of her grandfather's actions sees her wrestle with the meaning of 'home', both in relation to looted objects of antiquity...and herself.
Review
The story opens up a dialogue on a contentious issue, the acquisition of culturally significant treasures from foreign countries. Taken during the occupations, the colonisation and in the name of research and history, they fill our museums and in some cases the homes of the private collectors.
However many of the origin countries want their antiquities back, due to their historical importance and perhaps to restore collections to their entirety. Britain isn't interested in doing so, and they argue for instance that the objects are safer with them than somewhere they could be damaged or destroyed. A little bit like scolding the naughty child who doesn't understand the importance of the item. I digress.
Helena visits her grandparents in Greece every year from a certain age, and although she eventually understands the tension between her grandparents and that her grandfather is quite unpleasant at times, but what she is unable to fully comprehend is the complexity of the political and historical tensions in her mother's country of origin.
It's very much a story about inhabiting a small cosmos in a family dynamic and being unable to fully understand that both parents and their parents before them have lived lives and perhaps been pivotal figures in the lives of others, and not in a positive way. How does one reconcile cruelty in blood relations, especially when they are the cause of despair in others? Then equally it's about the desecration and plundering of antiquities.
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