Corelli's Mandolin: Amazon.ca: Louis de Bernieres: Books

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339 Reviews

5 star:		(216)
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4.4 out of 5 stars (339 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Corelli's Mandolin - Unabridged Audio, July 8 2003

By

Healthy Mom "Healthy Mom" (Fort Collins, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corelli's Mandolin (Audio Cassette)

This book, excellent on it's own merit, is magnificent when read by Stephen Lang. Each character is a living, breathing person speaking to you with their own unique accent and voice. His character reading of Il Duce/Mussolini was fabulously hysterical! As my daily commute spans two and a half hours, I have 'read' many audio books, Lang is by far the most talented of the readers I have thus far encountered. I highly recommend this unabridged audio book. It will have you laughing and crying.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Simply one of my all-time favorite books ever, Jun 13 2003

By

Peggy Vincent "author and reader" (Oakland, CA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Corelli's Mandolin (Paperback)

Who could ask for more from a single book? History, romance, mystery, a morality lesson.
Set in Greece in the early days of WWII, the story of Pelagia, the daughter of the village doctor, spans her life into old age.
Corelli is the captain of the occupying Italian forces and he takes over their house and stays with them. But he's not your typical military man: He is an opera buff, responds to Nazi greetings with "Heil Puccini," and his most treasured possession is his mandolin. Love is complicated in wartime, even more so when the lovers are on opposite sides.
Corelli's Mandolin explores all the various kinds of love known to man: love between people (passionate and platonic), parent and child, doctor and patient, love of people for their homes, their country, for life itself.
Buy two, and give one to a good friend.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Book with Everything!, May 26 2002

By

Jessika (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Corelli's Mandolin (Paperback)

Louis de Bernieres's novel, Corelli's Manodlin, is a rich mixture of everything possible to include in a novel, and has something for everyone. A fictional story based on facts with a little mystery, this book is set in Greece during World War II, and the main character is a pretty young woman named Pelagia. She lives with her father, a doctor, on the island of Cephallonia, and does her best to live life happily and fully when WWII breaks out. Throughout the course of the war, island life changes dramatically, from the Italian invasion, to having supplies cut off by the British, to seeing their young men, including Pelagia's fiance, off to war. A mandolin-playing, opera-singing Italian officer moves into Pelagia's house and lives with her and her father for the greater part of the war, eventually charming his way into both of their hearts. As the tale unfolds, sometimes you laugh, sometimes you cry, and sometimes you scream. The novel covers all possible aspects of literature--violence, hate, love, humor, irony, mystery, art, heroism, friendship, religion, and even a little fantasy.
I enjoyed Corelli's Mandolin immensely, especially because of the ending. The conclusion is so unique that if you like depressing endings, you can think of it in a way that makes it depressing, and if you like happy endings, you can think of it in a way that makes it happy. The variety of characters, from the merry Italians, to the disciplined Germans to the proud Greeks, and the variety of emotions helped me see WWII in a new light and bring it to reality. The unexpected plot twists topped it all off and left me practically breathless. Bernieres's Corelli's Mandolin is a fabulous novel.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece of anti-war fiction
This is a fine book. At first I was a little tentative about it and thought that it was too cute, but gradually I found myself sucked into the vortex of a Greek Island and an... Read more

Published on May 20 2002 by Kevin Brianton

5.0 out of 5 stars Overwhelmingly beautiful
I absolutely adored this book, and it's rare that I say that. It took me a long time to get into it though - it took me a year to read the first 100 pages and only a week and a... Read more

Published on May 19 2002 by Bron Mitchell