Eleni

Eight years old when his mother arranged her children's escape from civil war-torn Greece and was tortured and murdered by Communist guerrillas, the author reconstructs Eleni's life and recounts his confrontation with her executioner

ted and brilliant achievement." The New York Review of Books

In 1948, as civil war ravaged Greece, children were abducted and sent to communist "camps" behind the Iron Curtain. Eleni Gatzoyiannis, 41, defied the traditions of her small village and the terror of the communist insurgents to arrange for the escape of her three daughters and her son, Nicola. For that act, she was imprisoned, tortured, and executed in cold blood. Nicholas Gage joined his father in Massachusetts at the age of nine and grew up to be a top investigative reporter for the New York Times. And finally he returned to Greece to uncover the story he cared about most -- the story of his mother's heroic life and tragic death.