The Thread: 'Storytelling at its best' from million-copy bestseller Victoria Hislop
About this ebook
Dimitri Komninos is born as fire devastates Thessaloniki, where Christians, Jews and Muslims live side by side. Five years later, Katerina Sarafoglou loses her mother when their home is destroyed by the Turkish army. She flees across the sea, alone, to Thessaloniki. When she and Dimitri meet, their lives entwine with one another - and the city itself - even as war, fear and persecution divide its people.
Ninety years later, a young Anglo-Greek hears his grandparents' life story for the first time. Should he become the custodian of their legacy and make this city his home, keeping alive the memories of those who were forced to leave?
Discover for yourself why 10 million readers and critics worldwide love Victoria Hislop's books . . .
'A sweeping, magnificently detailed and ambitious saga' The Sunday Times
'Hislop does her research and is very good at interweaving the lives of individuals into the backcloth of great events, giving the reader a history lesson that doesn't feel like one ' Daily Mail
'Hislop's fast-paced narrative and utterly convincing sense of place make her novel a rare treat' Guardian
'This is storytelling at its best and just like a tapestry, when each thread is sewn into place, so emerge the layers and history of relationships past and present' Sunday Express
'Meticulously researched and compellingly told' Woman & Home
'Oh what a tangled web she weaves! Hislop has done well to tell a story as diverse and tempestuous as Thessaloniki's with such lightness of touch' Spectator
'A magnificent setting for this poignant tale . . .Victoria Hislop has a talent of bringing history alive on the printed page' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'I wanted this one to last forever' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A beautifully written book that kept me reading late into the night . . . a fascinating glimpse into the not so distant past' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'A spell-binding story' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'Thessaloniki is much more than a setting for this all-embracing historical saga . . . this many layered story which has been beautifully threaded together' Real Reader Review, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
*Victoria Hislop's most recent novel, THE FIGURINE, is out now.*
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About the author
Victoria Hislop is the multi-million copy bestselling author of ten books, including The Island, The Return, The Thread, The Sunrise, Those Who are Loved, The Last Dance and Other Stories, Cartes Postales from Greece and One August Night. Victoria's most recent novel, The Figurine, topped the UK TCM as the biggest selling single edition in the country for two consecutive weeks in 2024.
Her books have been translated into forty languages and Victoria was executive producer on the adaptations of three of her novels for Greek television.
Victoria divides her time between England and Greece and in 2020 was granted honorary citizenship by the President of Greece. She is Vice President of the British School at Athens, is on the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles and also on the Advisory Board for the Parthenon Project.
She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds Honorary Doctorates from the Universities of Patra and Sheffield. In 2025, she was awarded the Byron Medal for Philhellenism at the Athens Academy and became the first woman to become an honorary member of the Society of Greek Writers.
