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jennswan's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape, Forced institutionalization, and Grief
Minor: Alcoholism, Cancer, and Car accident
asl4u's review
5.0
Good book - great story... irony... and the presence of a really evil person - born that way... and yet - in all her life - she does not suffer what she does to other people... and she feels entirely justified to hurt the people around her. This is real life... wow.
anapolih's review
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
kcoccia's review
3.0
All but the last 40 pages of this book I listened to the audiobook; which I am a little upset about.
This is not the kind of book you listen to. This is a book you need to actually read because there is just so much to take in with the multiple generations that you cant get from an audiobook that doesnt differentiate between the generations. It was often very hard to keep track of what was happening; which generation of the family are we talking about?
I think this book would've been a much higher rated if I had read it. Maybe I'll come back to it one day. I feel a little robbed right now.
This is not the kind of book you listen to. This is a book you need to actually read because there is just so much to take in with the multiple generations that you cant get from an audiobook that doesnt differentiate between the generations. It was often very hard to keep track of what was happening; which generation of the family are we talking about?
I think this book would've been a much higher rated if I had read it. Maybe I'll come back to it one day. I feel a little robbed right now.
georgia_hadj's review against another edition
2.0
Μιας και είμαι λάτρης των βιβλίων της κυρίας Μαντά, το συγκεκριμένο μου φάνηκε κάπως "λίγο". ενώ ηταν αρκετά περιγραφικό, ήθελα και αλλες πληροφορίες για τους ήρωες. ένιωθα πως επικρατούσε η αφήγηση στις ζωές των χαρακτήρων και δεν με βοηθούσε να την ζήσω και εγώ μαζί τους. επίσης το τέλος ήταν κάπως απότομο.
defran's review against another edition
3.0
Σχετικά καλύτερο από τα προηγούμενα βιβλία της που έχω διαβάσει,ακολουθεί όμως και σε αυτό το ίδιο μοτίβο.
awellreadlady's review
emotional
informative
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
krissyyne's review against another edition
3.0
"My girl, sometimes you meet your fate on the road you took to avoid it."
Three stars, but closer to 4. I really liked The Gold Letter, but there were some things I would've changed.
The Gold Letter focuses on the Kantadaris family and their forbidden love with the Kouyoumdzis clan. (I'm pretty sure I spelled those names wrong and I apologize!) Following three generations of the family, it intertwines with the present-day view of Fenia Kantartzi, who inherited a house and a fortune from a grandfather she never knew.
Personally, I enjoyed this book a lot. The first chapter threw me off a bit, because pacing wise, we dove straight into the home renovations and such. I was a little confused by that, but overall, it wasn't a big deal.
I loved Chrysafenia and Smargada (the original ones, that is) but was less than impressed with the second generations of the names. I felt that Fenia's character was almost too hard to empathize with because her backstory was just so tragic. In a novel plagued with devastation, the cataclysmic events of Fenia's life impacted me less, although terrible situations like her's do occur. Smargada shouldn't have put up with Hecuba's cruelty for so long. After generations of Kantadaris' climbing back from pain, it seemed strange that Smargada took her sister's abuse so willingly.
Other than those points, I truly enjoyed most of the novel, especially in Constantinople.
Three stars, but closer to 4. I really liked The Gold Letter, but there were some things I would've changed.
The Gold Letter focuses on the Kantadaris family and their forbidden love with the Kouyoumdzis clan. (I'm pretty sure I spelled those names wrong and I apologize!) Following three generations of the family, it intertwines with the present-day view of Fenia Kantartzi, who inherited a house and a fortune from a grandfather she never knew.
Personally, I enjoyed this book a lot. The first chapter threw me off a bit, because pacing wise, we dove straight into the home renovations and such. I was a little confused by that, but overall, it wasn't a big deal.
I loved Chrysafenia and Smargada (the original ones, that is) but was less than impressed with the second generations of the names. I felt that Fenia's character was almost too hard to empathize with because her backstory was just so tragic. In a novel plagued with devastation, the cataclysmic events of Fenia's life impacted me less, although terrible situations like her's do occur. Smargada shouldn't have put up with Hecuba's cruelty for so long. After generations of Kantadaris' climbing back from pain, it seemed strange that Smargada took her sister's abuse so willingly.
Other than those points, I truly enjoyed most of the novel, especially in Constantinople.
alstrath's review against another edition
4.0
This was the first book that I've read featuring the refugee crisis in Europe and detailing the dvisions between Turk and Greek in Constantinople.
Chrysafenia Karapanos also known as Fenia inherits her late mother's childhood home from her grandfather who kicked her mother out of the house when she was 17. She knows nothing about her mother's family and in the renovating of the house she discovers letters - the oldest almost 90 years old, the others a bit more recent. Together with these letters and her mother's cousin she pieces together the history of a family she didn't know.
Her family's root lay in Constantinople as Greeks living amongst the Turks in a very turbulent time in their history. This is a riveting story spanning over four generations of women from one family who were linked with three generations of Kouyoumdzis men.
It covers a portion of History that was unknown to me but so vividly described that it felt as if I was right there amidst it all. What the Kouyoumdzis family and hundreds of others like them lived through humbled a person and those scenes have not left my thoughts.
A beautiful ending with a far bit left unsaid, but the reader can fill in the blanks for themselves.
It was not always easy to read especially the depiction of the violence of the attacks by the Turks on the Greeks on the streets of Constantinople, but it was a brilliant translation whose words carried all the power and poignancy that the story deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.
Chrysafenia Karapanos also known as Fenia inherits her late mother's childhood home from her grandfather who kicked her mother out of the house when she was 17. She knows nothing about her mother's family and in the renovating of the house she discovers letters - the oldest almost 90 years old, the others a bit more recent. Together with these letters and her mother's cousin she pieces together the history of a family she didn't know.
Her family's root lay in Constantinople as Greeks living amongst the Turks in a very turbulent time in their history. This is a riveting story spanning over four generations of women from one family who were linked with three generations of Kouyoumdzis men.
It covers a portion of History that was unknown to me but so vividly described that it felt as if I was right there amidst it all. What the Kouyoumdzis family and hundreds of others like them lived through humbled a person and those scenes have not left my thoughts.
A beautiful ending with a far bit left unsaid, but the reader can fill in the blanks for themselves.
It was not always easy to read especially the depiction of the violence of the attacks by the Turks on the Greeks on the streets of Constantinople, but it was a brilliant translation whose words carried all the power and poignancy that the story deserves.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me the chance to read this book.
clairewords's review
3.0
Destiny caresses the few, but molests the many. Turkish Proverb
Greek and Turkish histories go back a long way, and I profess to knowing little about them, however it's clear that whichever people you belong to there is likely to be a bias towards their stories, and it as likely that these populations are more mixed than they would like to believe, and that there have been generations of cheerful intermingling, despite the differences that kept their identities separate.
However this is a story of Greek families living in what was then known as Constantinople (later renamed as Istanbul, one of many name changes - The city was founded in 667 BC and named Byzantium by the Greeks ), and how the same twist of fate affected three generations of the same two families, where a young woman and a young man fall in love, only to have the union thwarted by their parents - in each generation it is for a different reason, beginning with them not being of the same wealth and social status, where marriage was more of a contract between families decided by the father's.
He had married her not, of course, because he loved her, but because that was what her father had decided...Nobody thought of asking Kleoniki if she wanted to marry the grim Anargyros, with his rough hands and even rougher personality. Besides it was thought to be a very good marriage, since the groom was prosperous and an orphan.
"A big thing, that, my dear!" the matchmaker informed the girl. "Neither a mother-in-law in your face nor a father-in-law to boss you round. Lady and mistress of your own house!"
And in case they thought about falling into the terrain of forbidden love, there were the sins of those who'd had to flee, "discussed with horror and scorn in hushed voices at evening gatherings and tea parties".
Even if some woman, deep down inside, understood the girl, she didn't dare say so. Many romantic souls sighed secretly, calculating what a great love the girl must have felt to run off with her beloved, overlooking the fact that he was a Turk.
However, just because the son's obey their father's and the families are estranged, doesn't stop whatever magnetism exists from bringing the next generation together.
The story and family history is revealed in the present day as a middle age woman Fenia, arrives from Germany to hear from a lawyer in Athens that she has inherited a house from a grandfather she never met. She decides to stay and do up the house and various knocks at the door lead her to meet relatives bearing both good wishes, hostility and the gaps in their shared history.
And The Gold Letter - a beautiful gift imagined and designed by the first generation but never created, finds its way into Fenia's hands and connects the stories together.
I was a little sceptical when I began reading due to the clear prejudices of the characters, whether it was Greeks against Turks or the attitude of the men towards women and certainly the women in all these generations suffer greatly, those in the present day perhaps most of all, however they were indicative of their time and sadly of the reality in some lands where borders change over the years and not everyone can flee, but they remember the violence and deaths of members of their families in the past, which continues to keep them separate for generations.
I was reminded of the wonderful novel about a friendship between two children in the same village, one of Greek and one of Turkish origin by Louis de Bernieres [b:Birds Without Wings|3399|Birds Without Wings|Louis de Bernières|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1320552889l/3399._SY75_.jpg|1690547], also a tragic love story, but one that combines the story of ordinary people's lives in the 1930's with a biography of the leader that will shift the balance of power in Turkey.
I enjoyed the novel, although it covers such a long period of time that there are many characters and connections to juggle and so not much time is spent with some. That said, it's clear that the author is a gifted storyteller invested in her characters, whom I enjoyed following and at times I felt almost like I watching this on film, it's an entertaining, episodic family drama of the old tradition, of couples trying to keep up family and cultural traditions.
Lena Manta was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to Greek parents and moved to Greece at a very young age. She lives in Athens, has written 13 books and this is her second to be translated into English.