Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Softcover

Louis de Bernieres' first three novels are The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best First Book Eurasia Region, 1991), Senor Vivo and the Coca Lord (Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book Eurasia Region, 1992), and The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman. The author was selected as one of the Granta twenty Best of Young British Novelists in 1993. Captain Corelli's Mandolin won the Commonwealth Writers Prize, Best Book, 1995. His most recent book is Birds Without Wings.

During WWII the little Greek isle of Cephallonia is occupied by a division of Italian soldiers. A young Greek woman, Pelagia (can you hear that name?), betrothed already to a local fisherman, surprises herself by falling in love with the musical, misplaced and Italian Captain Corelli. But this central love is only one of many different kinds that shine out from the blackness of war. Carlo's accounts of his sadly repressed homosexual loves, for example, once understood in their platonic purity, break one's heart. Actor Michael Maloney's interpretation of this beautifully structured and deeply moving historical romance is replete with the music of life and language. He plays up the comedy, suffers with the tragedy and delights in the romance. Reflecting many different viewpoints, his vocalizations of Greek and Italian characters (including an entertainingly demented Mussolini) are filled with the common humanity that unites us listeners in full celebration of the book's great theme: the enduring mysteries of love. Maloney's interpretation is less an enhancement than a fulfillment of this luminescent novel. P.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine