North of Ithaka: A Journey Home Through a Family's Extraordinary Past

This book is a rare treat. I loved reading it - I was mesmerized by it and during this snowed-in weekend when I read it, I was transported to Lia, where I lived under its magnificent sky with the changing sunset colors (enjoyed from the vernada of the Haidis house); observed up close the house reconstruction project; and came to know an entire village, feeling if not a Liotan myslef, at least like a frequent visitor. What also springs out of the book, perhaps more than Lia and its people, is the author herself: nice, smart, mature, perceptive and talented. And a note to her father: you're a great author but she is at least as good a writer as you, not to say better. So please give up the comparisons with her at the Thanksgiving table, there are genetics out there and there is also evolution -- and she has both aplenty. I'm sure you glow with justified pride having her as a daughter. Anyone would! Bottom Line: A SUPERB BOOK - NOT TO BE MISSED!

This is a wonderful book. Reading it transported me to the author's family's small mountain village in Greece, with all the characters, story, drama, laughter and sadness you'd expect from a movie (or real life). Ms. Gage lets you in on all her adventures. Her main project is to rebuild her grandmother's house, years after terrible events took place there, but some of the best parts of the book are the encounters she has outside the village, with Gypsies, ancient oracles, shopkeepers, et al. After reading this book, I can't wait to travel to Epiros!

Eleni Gage takes you on a jouney to the type of place we all long for. It's a warm and refreshing look at village life today. "North Of Ithaka" is truely "a fun read" which I enjoyed from cover to cover. It provides a wonderful counterpoint to serious overtones of Nicholas Gage's "Eleni." Having spent time many years ago in another village in Epiros, Eleni Gage gets this one right.

This book is a beautiful portrayal of life as it was and life as it is in the small villages in Greece. A great read. Very moving.

It comes as no surprise that Eleni Gage turns out to be a gifted writer. It runs in the blood, I guess. Her father is the well known Nicholas Gage who wrote, among other fine books, one about his mother Eleni who was murdered by Communist guerrillas in the Greek civil war just after WW II. When I read it a few years ago it left me in a state of shock for about a week. The present more upbeat work recounts the author's yearlong stay in the village of Lia, close to the Albanian border, where she succeeds in rebuilding the very house in which her grandmother and other villagers were kept prisoners before being brutally murdered more than a half-century earlier. The author wants to strengthen her sense of rootedness in Epirus while holding on to the values and habits of thought she has acquired as an American woman. She wants to fit into life in her ancestral village without being seduced by a mindset she has been conditioned to reject - or at least question. She encounters lots of customs and practices that can be classed as superstition or magic (or even idolatry) that the locals think are part of Christianity but which she finds only marginally acceptable. Most of the people she runs into treat her with great kindness and become her friends even though none of them are nearly as well educated as she. They are, in fact, mostly old or elderly. The author experiences some emotional turmoil as the reconstruction process runs into some snags and delays, and as she has to deal with bureaucrats and others whose venality and incompetence would make a less motivated person wonder if it is all worth it. An almost constant presence in the book is the author's earthy Aunt Kanta, the Greek-born American lady who speaks imperfect English, believes everything in America is perfect, and has opinions on every conceivable topic, including why her niece is single and what she should do to get married. Even though Kanta is very in-your-face and sometimes a pain in the neck, she is still lovable. And so are the villagers. And so are the undocumented Albanians who cross the border looking for work. During the year the author has some fascinating close encounters with groups of people who enrich her experience and teach her a lot about the importance of history and continuity in the life of groups and individuals. A group of uprooted Greek Jews arrive from New York and take her to Ioannina to visit what is left of their cemetery and synagogue. She spends some time with a Gypsy family who are involved in local politics and even gets to attend a Gypsy wedding. She goes on a "field trip" to make contact with the descendents of the Dorians known as Sarakatsani. The thing I like most about this book, apart from its being very well written and sometimes lyrical, is its spirit of optimism and hope for the future - of humanity.