When the city of Constantinople (present day Istanbul) fell to the Turkish Ottoman Empire in 1453, it marked the end of the Byzantine Empire, one of Europe’s most advanced cultures. The Ottoman subjugated Greece and her Balkan neighbors for over 300 years. Cruel treatment by her captives had reduced Greece to a poverty-stricken state, riddled with corruption and crippled by heavy taxes. Local Turkish pashas ruled with a combination of laxity (change your Christian religion and pay no taxes,) or by extortion, (pay the right person and you are left alone.)
Set in 1790 high in the rugged mountains of the Peloponnese peninsula of Southern Greece, the story recounts the tale of Giorgi’s tragic quest for revenge when he discovers secret agents of the Ottoman sultan’s elite Janissary Corps murdered his parents. With his younger brother, Yianni, they leave their widowed aunt’s home to join the outlawed Greek rebels (kleftes) in the craggy Taygetos Mountains. Ensconced in deep mountainous caves, the rebels live and train to battle the Turks. Hoping to join forces with his hero, Kapetan Zaharias, Giorgi encounters many obstacles, preventing him from realizing his boyhood dream of fighting along side him. Tragedy is his constant companion, as each encounter on his journey ends in disaster.
The story briefly depicts battles before and during the Greek War of Independence 1821-1829, and narrates the saga of three generations of Yianni and Giorgi’s family and of the cruel treatment imposed by the Turkish military. Far below in the valleys and dales, the overworked and overtaxed peasants toil incessantly in the fields. Deeply rooted in centuries-old Greek traditions, the peasants are bound to these customs, crushing any hope of change. Love of family, love between a man and a woman, and love of country resounds in this historical novel.
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