It seems like there's been a plethora of books about WWII lately but what makes this one stand out is that is set in Greece.  I had never thought of Greece being so involved in the fighting and in some ways, it wasn't.  Many of the villages were occupied by the Germans but Athens seems to have come through relatively unscathed. It seems the local partisans did as much damage as the Germans.

  This is the story of Aliki, a young woman in a rural town whose mother has abandoned her, her father is executed by the Germans for scavenging wild squash and her surrogate mother is also killed by the Germans as they leave town. At 13 she is left with her "brother" who is definitely not right in the head and a refugee the family has kept hidden from the Germans.

  She is frustrating but then you remember that she's only 14 and then 15. It's an interesting story how she creates a new life after the war. There is a whole bit about shadow puppets they create and use to provide a living for themselves. Eventually she becomes a lamenter who cries for people when they die. 

  The story is told by Akita recounting her life on cassette tapes for an American researcher studying lamenters.  It makes an interesting way to tell her story. I was quite interested in the story of Greece and how they survived. 

  Thank you Net Galley for a copy of this story.

This book was a fascinating and enjoyable read, especially because it was set in Greece during the end of World War II. I enjoyed the beginning very much and the ending was great, but I had some trouble staying invested in the story about halfway through, which is why I have it 4 stars instead of 5. The first person narration of the story made me feel a stronger connection to Aliki. Bringing in the history of shadow puppetry and having that play a big role in the novel was interesting to learn more about Greek culture. I would have liked to learn more about the ancient act of lamenting, which I originally thought was going to be a bigger focus in the novel, but I didn't feel like the story lacked because of this. This story of love and family in the midst of chaos was very well-written and captured the devastation in Greece during this time period. As a side note, I think the cover of this book is beautiful.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Berkeley Publishing Group for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Aliki was a lamenter, a person who would use her words to help a dead person's friends and family grieve. This was an old Greek tradition and the aged Aliki was one of the last lamenters in her Greek town. An American researcher came to interview her about those old traditions. However the younger woman is called back her home suddenly. So she leaves a tape recorder and asks Aliki to record answers to a set of questions about the lamenting process.

 Aliki then uses the tapes to record her life story beginning with the German occupation during World War II. The old woman talks of the life in her small village as one after another, various groups of soldiers and partisans and communists took control and made life difficult for the locals. The Greek Civil War that followed World War II changed the lives of Aliki, her lover Stelios and Takis, a younger boy whose mother took care of her after Aliki's mother was killed. A rivalry develops between Stelios and Takis and continues throughout the story. 

The life story continues up to the present as Aliki is near the end of her life. The bloody Greek Civil gave way to the current unrest and bankruptcy in her native country. 

The author has created a moving tale and well developed characters that readers will remember for a long time after ending the book.

I'm no longer interested in reading this novel at this time.  Thank you for the opportunity!

My Last Lament by James William Brown is a unique novel set in WWII and post WWII Greece.  The novel is told in flashback through the narration of an old woman Aliki.  Aliki lives in a small village in northeastern Greece and practices the dying art of lamentation.  When someone dies, she literally steps into their shoes and mourns their passing through dirge like poems.  An American researcher has left a tape recorder and some cassette tapes with Aliki to record her lamentations on.  Aliki records the story of her life on the tapes, speaking of the Nazi occupation of her village when she was a girl, the death of her father, her subsequent adoption by a village woman and her eccentric son, Takis, and being orphaned again at the end of the war.  Aliki, Takis, and Stelios, an orphaned Jewish boy hidden and taken in by Aliki's adoptive mother set out on a quest to survive in post WWII Greece.  Their journey is hard, but compelling to read about.  It explored a facet of World War II that I never knew much about, and the ending of the novel caught me by surprise. It was a powerful and heartbreaking read.

I couldn't connect to the stories being told.  The style - cassettes - was  an unnecessary intrusion which separated me from connecting to the narrative..

This was an intriguing portrayal of WWII – there are certainly not many books sent in Greece during this time period, so the second I read the blurb I knew that I wanted to read The Last Lament. I was hoping for something along the lines of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See – a book set in WWII that isn’t about the holocaust so much as the lives of people in occupied countries and their day to day trials. Don’t get me wrong – books on the holocaust are so important, but it’s intriguing to get to read about the rest of the war, and the far-reaching effects it had all across Europe. The horrors of the holocaust often occupy the majority of our headspace (and our historical fiction), so it’s rare that an amazing book comes along that looks at other parts of this global conflict and shines a light where before there was only darkness. 

And in many ways, The Last Lament lived up to my expectations. It’s beautifully written, though a bit slow at times, and the perspective is certainly unique. It was very interesting to learn more about Lamenters, and I enjoyed the almost magical-realism vibe that Aliki created when speaking about the dead and how she laments for them. The dead were so hyper-present here that I really did feel like the story had otherworldly ties, which sets it apart from other historical fiction. Despite that, it is still very much grounded in reality, and never feels far-fetched. 

There are some very painful moments in this book, and even though the prose does feel a bit slow at times I loved how the tension is consistent. You can feel the stress between Aliki, Takis, and Stelios underneath everything all the time, and it kept me intrigued from start to finish. That, coupled with a few secrets that are slowly revealed in the present day, made this book a true mystery (and one that I was eager to solve). 

I’d recommend this to anyone looking for a fresh perspective on WWII. 

A huge thanks to Berkley Books for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review. 
	
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is really a sad story and is just sad that things like this probably did happen to people in Greece after WWII. I'm always fascinated by things involving WWII and this is another angle I had no idea existed. Very interesting and I would like to learn more about Greece after the war.

This book tells a first-person account of what happened to a teenage girl during World War II. Aliki tells her story to a battery operated tape recorder for a student who wants to know what Aliki says during a "lament", a chant for the dead that only she can perform. 
Aliki experiences many terrible things, she sees her father shot by a Nazi, she eats bulbs and snails for food, and she sees her friend who is like a mother to her, killed by a Nazi looking for Jews.
She and her friend, Taki, (a strange young boy who talks to his feet and wanders away without knowing how he got somewhere.) befriend Stelios, a young Jewish refugee and his mother who live in the cellar of their house. Stelios teaches Aliki and Taki how to do puppet shows with a famous Grecian puppet " Karagiozis, who was a poor Greek who lived under Turkish rule, she explained, during the time of the Ottoman empire, which occupied Greece for four hundred years before the revolution that drove them out. A wily underdog, Karagiozis played the fool in order to outwit the rulers."
Stelio's puts on a lot of plays with the little family, which helps them forget what they are going through.
You will have to read for yourself what happens to Aliki, Taki and Stelios, how they have to go from Northern Greece to Athens, and how their knowledge of puppetry sustains them.

Aliki's life in Greece has been a hard one, from seeing her father killed in WWII, and then through the Greek civil war. Hardship follows hardship, and much is lost. I will say that I did expect a little more Greek history in this book, but it is a little light on this. I would have given it a higher rating except the writing style was slow and not at all engaging. Only my opinion.

This was such a heart wrenching story. I LOVE LOVE LOVE historical fiction, which all my blog followers probably know by now. This was by far the most emotionally draining piece I've read lately. 

As a young girl, Aliki, witnesses her father's murder during WWII. From there she tells her story about the struggles of war. Death, poverty, hunger, and time of pure fear gripped me with every page I turned. 

The author does an amazing job at making it feel like the story is being told directly to the reader. This story is told via "cassette tapes" which gave it a real feel of being captured for historical purposes. Very descriptive writing. I had no problem imagining every little detail of the story. I liked the little bits of dark humor added throughout the storytelling. 

The characters are very unique and quite interesting, though appealing is not a word I would use to describe most. You definitely will not forget them. This is a book to be read slowly so that you can take in every little word. It is a view of WWII from Greece, a point of view not often seen in historical fiction writing, which I enjoyed. 

My Last Lament is available now. It is not for light reading. Be ready to be overwhelmed with emotions. A 4 star read for me! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing Group for allowing me to read and give my honest review.

Happy Reading!

Will post a spotlight on April 28th at the Dew.  http://dewonthekudzu.com

An interesting new perspective on the aftermath of WWII in Greece, I found the story captivating, but the narrator somewhat irritating. I think plenty of readers will enjoy this, it just wasn't quite right for me.

I received this book for free from Netgalley. This did not influence my review.

I’ve been looking forward to reading My Last Lament by James William Brown. I know pretty much nothing about modern Greek history, and the blurb for the novel intrigued me.

Aliki is an elderly woman recording her “memoir” for an ethnographer who we never meet, who is studying the ancient folk custom of “lamenting” the dead. Visiting Aliki’s isolated village, the student was unable to witness Aliki in action, so she left behind a cassette player and some blank tapes. The result is this novel.

A lamenter is not exactly a paid mourner and not exactly a eulogizer, but something in between. Upon the death of a loved one, a lamenter is brought in to encapsulate the life of the deceased with a poetic remembrance. Aliki’s gift for lamenting came upon her all at once and she performs the task in a semi-trance, not really knowing where the words come from. This recollection of her own life, this encapsulation, is, in a way, her own lament.

Aliki was about 14 years old when the Germans took over her village. Early on, they executed her father for hoarding food, and she was taken in by a neighbor, Chrysoula, who had a young son, Takis. They grew up together and so shared a lifelong bond.

Chrysoula was a woman of action. In addition to Aliki, she also took in a Jewish refugee family from the city, a mother and son, Stelios. Stelios is a bit older. Aliki and Stelios fall in love.

Things are not going to work out well. Though the Germans are eventually defeated, they cause enough havoc in the town that the family is disrupted. Many of the villagers are killed. Then, unfortunately, Aliki, Takis, and Stelios find that post-war Greece is as savage and dangerous as occupied Greece.

Stelios is a skilled shadow puppeteer, and the three set off trying to earn their living by putting on performances, first in the city and then around the countryside. Aside from the dangers of the ongoing civil war, the cohesion of their little group is threatened by the animosity between Takis and Stelios. Takis is mentally ill and hounded by confusion and guilt over what happened back in the village. He’s also fiercely jealous of the relationship between Stelios and Aliki. 

The novel serves as a tour of post-war Greece and an introduction to the political divisions that have brought Greece to the position it’s in today. The characters are sympathetic and the action is well paced. Readers may guess the secrets that drive the plot before the big reveal at the end, but that doesn’t detract from the story.

A heartbreaking and sad story but one that I will always cherish. Aliki is one of these characters I will never forget. The period of time the story is set is one I'm always fond to read because there is always a chance to come across a book like My Last Lament. Beautifully written, believable characters, and a story once you start it is really hard to put it down.

Aliki’s tragic life seems appropriate for a professional lamenter. We learn about her life as she records her story on tapes that were left for her by an American ethnographer—who really only wanted Aliki’s laments and talk about Greek “funerary customs”—in My Last Lament, by James William Brown. The novel jumps back and forth as Aliki tells us about her left in the present and between 1943 and 1948, when Greece was occupied and then tried to get back on its feet after World War II.

The book opens with Aliki in the present, as an ethnographer explains what she wants in baffling (and hilarious) academese. Aliki lives alone in her home village and is occasionally called out to compose spontaneous laments for the oldest members of the community. Aliki is willing to humor the American, but she takes the opportunity to tell her own story in between recalled laments and village goings-on. She takes us back to 1943. Her village in mainland Greece has been occupied by German forces and everyone is hungry. We meet young Aliki just as her father has been executed for running a secret squash garden.

After Aliki’s father is killed, a neighbor takes her in. Unbeknownst to Aliki and Takis, the neighbor’s son, Chrysoula is also hiding a Jewish mother and son in her basement. When disaster strikes just as the Germans are about to leave the village, Aliki flees with Takis and the Jewish son, Stelios. The trio have their own odyssey across mainland Greece, Crete, and a remote Greek island over the next few years. Bad luck and bad decisions hound them along the way (though there are no sirens or cyclops). Aliki and Stelios are such strivers that, after a few chapters, I just wished that they could find a bit of peace and happiness.

My Last Lament offers a look into a theater of the war I didn’t know much about. I knew even less about post-war Greece, which seems even more dangerous than the Germans because there are so many armed factions fighting for control of the liberated country. I wish there had been a bit more about Aliki’s mystical laments, but this book is laced with Greece puppet theater and customs that I very much enjoyed. (There are descriptions of food that will probably send readers to the nearest Greek restaurant.) Brown also pulls off the trick of making both the past and present sections of the book equally interesting. If you have a taste for the tragic, My Last Lament is a terrific read.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.

Aliki is a young girl when she sees her father shot during WWII; because of this tragedy she is unable to speak for years.  The only noise she can make is that of a Greek lamenter.  This art is more than just wailing and involves putting on the shoes of the dead person and uttering the dirge poems that rise from that person’s ghostly presence.  It might seem to be a bit of far-fetched nonsense but in this story it’s a vibrant part of Greek culture.   Thereafter, Aliki is taken in by a neighbor, Chrysoula and her son Takis, who become main characters in this tale.
Takis is what we now called mentally challenged.  He becomes irate when anyone pays too much attention to Aliki and then commits horrific acts.  As the war continues, German soldiers come into their Greek town and take over homes, food, and everything Greek.  Chrysoula takes a great risk by hiding two Jews, Sophia and Stelios.  Stelios is a character possessing great culture.  He claims that The Iliad is the only novel one might read as it possesses everything one needs in life.  Aliki and Stelios fall in love. There is a wonderful segment in the story where Stelios teaches his protectors everything there is to know about the art of shadow puppetry.  Stelios teaches them how to write these plays, create the appropriate puppets for each story and then teaches them to act out each drama.  This fills many hours that otherwise would have been dwelt on hunger and fear of exposure. However, their town is about to suffer a terrible blow when the Germans discover Stelios hiding.  
The family escapes and the remainder of the story is about their journey to Crete and the establishment of shadow puppetry performances.  Takis is accused of exposing the family and causing much destruction.  However, Aliki is bound to him and feels responsible for protecting him as his family once took her in.  The truth about each horrific event they experience eventually will come out, shocking the reader and making this an unforgettable story.  Despite the repetitive and disorganized quality of some pages, this is a novel reflecting what average, ordinary Greek and Cretan citizens suffered during and after the terror of the Second World War!  Interesting addition to war and historical fiction!

This novel was well-written and had an interesting premise. However, it wasn't the story I was expecting. Reading the premise, I thought that the focus would be more on how Aliki became a lamenter and what it all means culturally, as lamenting is a process I am not familiar with and would love to read more about. Instead, this novel focused on how Greece was affected by the invasion of Nazi soldiers. Yes, this is a perspective I have not read about as of yet. But there was really nothing to make this novel stand out in my mind in comparison to every other novel on the same topic. The switch from the present time to the recounting of past memories was not always very clear; at times, I found it to be jarring when the switch happened and had to read the page over again to be clear. This wasn't a terrible book by any means, but it wasn't what I was expecting, and so it left me a bit disappointed. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting to read about the Nazi occupation of Germany. Because that is the main focus of the book. Not lamenting.

It's hard to characterize this well written historical novel. It's certainly not a particularly easy read but it's worthy especially because you'll learn something about Greece in WWII and beyond through the eyes of a woman who lived through a lot of upheaval and pain.  This was not a good time for Aliki, who tells her story in a measured way despite all the bad things.  Brown has used an interesting technique- the cassette tape idea.  THanks to Netgalley for the ARC.  Try this one if you are interested in the era and want something different, noting that the title is relevant.

There is a trend in novels lately with many books chronicling the struggles of ordinary people during WWII and its aftermath.  The Nightingale, by Kristen Hannah, and All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, both deal with civilians in France and Germany.  My Last Lament, by James William Brown, focuses on the impact the war had on Greece.  

I'm embarrassed to say that I know very little of 20th century Greek history, but I now feel I have an inkling of some of their challenges by reading this book.  Beyond the historical aspects, this is also a book exploring why people become evil.  Is a person inherently bad, or are they bad because of the way they are treated?  I found this book to be absorbing and haunting in its storytelling.

What I Liked: 

Setting:

Books that feature small town life are some of my favorites.  I love seeing all the various characters who seem to enter and exit in the background, but who later become significant parts of the story.  This kept me on my toes!

Everyone has secrets, but in a small village, most of these emerge over time.

The times are full of the bitter struggles of survival during the Nazi occupation.  Everyone is hungry and some are even spying on their neighbors. 

The book shifts over time from a small village in Greece, to the capitol city of Athens, and then on to several other islands.  The author's descriptions made each place come alive to me as a reader, and makes me want to visit this country.

Characters:

Aliki is the main character, and her story is told when she is an old woman, in a series of flashbacks to the time of WWII and its aftermath.  She has a gift to lament when a person dies.  This means that she goes into a trance and gives voice to the dead.

Orphaned at the beginning of the story, Aliki is taken in by a neighbor, Chrysoula and her young son, Takis.  She goes through many trials but is a survivor, always trying to see the good in everyone.

Takis is the younger boy who becomes obsessed with Aliki.  Over the years, he is accused of several terrible acts.  People treat him with suspicion and later seems to become what people think of him.  It's hard to say whether or not he deserves the ridicule he receives.  He does do some of the evil things in the book.  But did the village essentially create a monster? 

There are also several women who befriend Aliki over the course of the book.  I love strong friendships in books and this showcases how women can bond together in difficult circumstances (men can too, BTW).

Overall, this is a book that will widen your understanding of Greece (perhaps even of the economic problems the country is experiencing right now).  There are wonderfully strong female characters and friendships, and excellent historical details.  This is a satisfying book.