"If Eleni were fiction, it would bear the mark of genius...A devoted and brilliant achievement...It is impossible to doubt a word of his terrible story...The separate strands lead to an intensely moving climax, making Eleni one of the rate books in which the power of art recreates the full historical truth."

"Part thriller, part history, part romantic epic...Eleni is a remarkable feat of technique and of soul."

"A story assigned by fate ...minutely observed and eloquently rendered.."

"This is a Greek tragedy in its most poignant sense, a series of adversities that is so overwhelming and appalling that the reader will feel as if his heart is being torn out, page by page."

"A painstaking, loving and deeply moving narrative...A stirring tribute to a particular woman...and at the same time a memorial to all the civilians who suffer in every war."

"Full of humorouos, ironic, sad touches, this extraordinary, moving saga reflects one family's attempt to balance assimilation with the preservation of Old-World traditions."

"Eleni sears its way into a reader's consciousness. Honest, moving and compelling, vivid and powerful...In finding his mother, his past and--one hopes---peace, Gage has given us an unforgettable book about love, hate, and the cruelties of war."

"Remarkable...brilliant...unique...Eleni lives through this book."

"The narrative is close to Hemingway's best...an entirely absorbing personal calamity...minutely and terrifying depicted."

"A tour de force...self evidently powerful and true."

"A book of burning intensity, made the more searing because...all the names, places and dates are real."

"This essential, shattering book...makes for compelling, at times overwhelming, reading."