A Crowded Heart is a novel that tells the story of a family dominant in Greek politics. Papandreou’s love for Greece and his mixed feelings about the family dynasty as portrayed here certainly make for “a crowded heart.” A small boy sees and observes much in the small details of life.

The writer in the Papandreou family, Nicholas, in his novel’s opening lines shows the poetic touch that makes you want to travel to Greece. “To describe Greece I would share with you a tomato on the sandy beaches of Skopellos, open a sea urchin with my penknife and serve you the scarlet eggs inside while the salt stetches the skin on our backs…I would dry you a starfish and hang it on your wall so you could smell the salty Aegean in your room,cheap sunglass, and ask you to breathe in the aroma of osier, broom and ginger root.”

Reading that makes images of Greece flood into my mind from my five visits there and roused the yearning I always have to go back again.

His depiction of the devotion of the Greek people to their socialist heroes in A Crowded Heart, and the loving relationship he has with his grandparents and sister make it very hard to believe this is a novel rather than a memoir. At any rate,Chanel Handbags, this book, even if it is not strictly memoir, or strictly travel literature, paints a detailed, beautiful, and culturally educational portrait of modern Greece.

From A Traveler’s Library,Hermes Birkin; exceprts,Replica Wallets, edited by Greece Travel Blog

- A Crowded Heart at Amazon