Corelli's Mandolin

Before Benito Mussolini attacked Greece in the early stages of World War II, Captain Corelli's Mandolin takes place. On the island of Cephalonia, Dr. Iannis practices medicine with his daughter Pelagia, to whom he teaches a great deal of his therapeutic technique. Life isn't so horrible, at least not at first, even when the Italians do invade. Captain Antonio Corelli, the well-bred commander in charge of the Italian garrison, answers the Nazi salutation of "Heil Hitler" with his own "Heil Puccini," and his mandolin is his most valuable asset. Pelagia is soon embroiled in a passionate relationship with Corelli, even though she is engaged to a young fisherman named Mandras, who has left to join Greek rebels. Even when couples are on the same side of the conflict, love is difficult enough at this period. Additionally, as crimes around them increase, old friends turn into adversaries, and the ugliness of war spreads to everyone it touches, Corelli and Pelagia find it more and more difficult to navigate the minefield of political and personal allegiances.

Renowned British writer Louis de Bernières is well recognized for his explorations into magical realism in books like The Troublesome Offspring of Cardinal Guzman, Señor Vivo and the Coca Lord, and The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts. Though the supporting cast he includes on his island, such as the strongman, the inebriated priest, and the fisherman who swims with dolphins, would fit right in with any of his brilliantly inventive Latin American fictions, he keeps it to a minimum here. Instead, as he recounts his increasingly somber account from a variety of angles, de Bernières appears intrigued in analyzing the essence of history. Mandolin by Captain Corelli is a multifaceted composition that explores several themes such as love, conflict, and the process of selecting historical events for inclusion in official records.