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The Village: A Novel of Wartime Crete Paperback – April 1, 2019

by Philip Duke (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 155 ratings
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A Cretan village confronts the Nazi juggernaut sweeping across Europe. A village matriarch tries to hold her family together...Her grieving son finds a new life in the Cretan Resistance…A naive English soldier unwillingly finds the warrior in himself…And a fanatical German paratrooper is forced to question everything he thought he believed in. The lives of four ordinary people are irrevocably entwined and their destinies changed forever as each of them confronts the horrors of war and its echoes down the decades.

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  1. Print length
    264 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Top Hat Books
  4. Publication date
    April 1, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.38 x 0.61 x 8.61 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    178535910X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1785359101
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Philip Duke is a retired professor of anthropology. He and his wife lived on the island of Crete, Greece for five years before returning to the United States in 2015. His first novel, A Terrible Unrest, is currently being turned into a screenplay. Philip now lives in Durango, Colorado, USA.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Top Hat Books (April 1, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 264 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 178535910X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1785359101
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.38 x 0.61 x 8.61 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 155 ratings

About the author

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Philip Duke

Philip Duke

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Philip Duke is a native of Liverpool, England. After receiving a degree in archaeology from the University of Cambridge in 1976 he took a doctorate at the University of Calgary. In 1980 he moved to the United States and taught at Fort Lewis College, Durango, CO. He was elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1990. His initial research interests were in North American archaeology. Later Philip returned to the first intellectual love of his life, Greek archaeology. He led college groups on archaeological tours of Grece and published a book ("The Tourists Gaze. The Cretans Glance," available on Amazon) and several articles on the relationship between archaeology and the Greek tourism industry. On retiring from Fort Lewis in 2009 he and his wife lived on the island of Crete for five years. It was during this stay that he developed his two novels "A Terrible Unrest" and "The Village. A Novel of Wartime Crete," both of which have strong Cretan connections.They now live just outside Durango with their two rescue dogs, Lexi and Missy.P. Philip hasd just completed his third novel, "I AM MARIA. A WOMAN'S JOURNEY THOUGH WAR."

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
155 global ratings
A poignant tale of the human toll of the invasion of the island Crete by the Nazis during WWII
4 Stars
A poignant tale of the human toll of the invasion of the island Crete by the Nazis during WWII
The history of the island of Crete is fascinating in its broad strokes and is well covered in non-fiction works. However, the story of the impacts of history on the lives of the local people there—a story that is often brutal, tragic, and sad—is not so often told. In The Village, Philip Duke has brought this story to life by creating engaging characters whose actions and experiences reveal not only war's banal violence and terror, but also the harsh consequences of the moral compromises war requires them to make.I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the human story of the invasion of Crete during WWII rather than in the abstract forces of geopolitical history. The Village is an entertaining read that shows Philip Duke's particular affection for the beauty of Crete and the character of its long-suffering people. I appreciate that the book has a certain philosophically reflective quality concerning the pathetic folly that leads to the needless death and destruction of war and which, at the same time, expresses both the author's sadness and his anger at such circumstances.
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Top reviews from the United States

dr liberty
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent read
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2023
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Having spent a bit of time on Crete as well as studying its history, especially the German invasion in WWII, I was very pleased with this novel. It read like a true historical novel - well-researched and believable!
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Mitchell Allen
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-told tale of a poorly known military event
Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2019
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Philip Duke's novel about the German invasion of Crete in 1941 is well told. it follows Cretan, German and British soldiers through the attack and its aftermath. Most telling and touching were the stories of the Greek villagers, suffering through the depredations of a war that encompassed their lives. A worthwhile read
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Brian Kiteley
5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting novel of place and history
Reviewed in the United States on July 27, 2019
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Philip Duke’s novel The Village shows both the intensity of the Cretan resistance to the Nazi occupation of their island at the beginning of the Second World War and the Germans’ astonishment and brutality in response. The whole novel works very well, but, in particular, the description of the massacre of an entire village is overwhelming and moving. It helps to have a German soldier point of view, among the several points of view we get, to see inside this bestial behavior, but the remarkable thing about the novel is the perspective of these doomed villagers. Philip Duke captures the Cretan mind and community with effortless grace. The book would probably work with just the English and German soldiers’ thoughts, but it is unusually insightful as a guide to the people of this small hillside world of peasants caught up in a war they waged valiantly but without a dog in the larger fight. The Village is an efficient and effective antiwar story, but mostly it is a beautiful and haunting novel of place.
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Rob Swigart
5.0 out of 5 stars A tense novel about the tragically stupid human activity of war
Reviewed in the United States on December 22, 2020
The title is code: the fictional village of Agios Stefanos is Crete, that is, it and its inhabitants stand in for the many villages on the island devastated by the German assault at the beginning of WWII. In other words, it is both an expression of eternal village culture, and the first main character of the book. This novel is not concerned with politics and the decisions of well dressed, well bred men in drawing rooms. It is not even about the mechanics of tactics and strategy, who fought where and how well. Like many war novels, it is about death and loss, rage and revenge, but above all, for me it was about the waste of human lives and the lasting twists war applies to the human psyche of those who survive.

For those of us who visited Greece long ago and much closer to the end of that war, Crete stood apart, not just geographically but culturally. Back then our perceptions of Crete was shaped in part by Zorba the Greek, the most famous novel about Crete by Nikos Kazantzakis. From it, we should expect dancing (we get it). Jules Dassin’s joyous film Never on Sunday may have prepared us for the smashing of crockery, but there is none of that here, due in part perhaps to a shortage of plates in wartime.

The Cretans were known as fierce warriors, bloodthirsty and ruthless, with their own dialect of Greek. The island is large, rugged, and isolated, as though made for guerrilla warfare.
Centuries of occupation by the Ottoman Turks gave the Cretans centuries of opportunity hiding in the relatively inaccessible mountains from which they could launch endless uncompromising resistance. Qgainst the barely spoken background of history, The Village, book and character, concerns itself with the daily struggle to survive under increasingly difficult circumstances, the conflicts and violence of rural life, the balm religion offers, and unexpected moments of human contact and meaning.

There are three main characters. First is the village itself, expressed though the person of the matriarch Anastasia and those under her care: her husband, son, and granddaughter (named Elpida, or hope). She’s as fierce as any man defending her home, yet wise and compassionate when it counts.

The second central character is Dieter Lehmann, a young, initially enthusiastic German paratrooper dropped near the village and the war’s confusing chaos, battle against Maori and Australian soldiers, cruelty and betrayal.

The third central character, Paul Cuthbertson, a naive, shy British soldier who, in the chaos of the British retreat to the south of the island, finds himself thrown into the guerrilla war.

These three form the novel’s central nervous system. All are fully formed characters, flawed, warped by rage and fear, touched by love, tenderness, and empathy. Dieter’s fanatical Hitler Youth is challenged by the experiences with the village and its island, and particularly with his encounter with Paul. As the characters change and grow, each in their own way, we feel with them. Because they are given such compassionate attention, many of the events in this book are powerfully moving.

The Village is not a war story about a fierce and glorious defense of freedom, the sadistic indulgences of the aggressors, nor the heroic steadfastness of the allies. It is rather a story of small human encounters, and the small human heroism that can emerge in the midst of incomprehensible savagery.

It’s a wonderful read.
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James S. Cross
5.0 out of 5 stars WWII on the Island of Crete
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2019
The Germans are invading, the English and New Zealanders are foreigners attempting to resist and the villagers on Crete are fiercely defending their homes, their traditions and their way of life. Author Philip Duke creates wonderful descriptions of his characters so that you more than empathize with them. You feel that you know each of them and their individual plights on their island. Beyond the engaging characters are the vivid descriptions of the places and the accounts of the horrors of war and how it transforms all that are caught up in it. These are descriptions so vivid that they become characters themselves in this story. A quick sample: "Thunder rocked the very foundations of the house. A violent gust of wind coughed down the chimney and smoke from the fire petulantly kicked back into the living room for a moment but then, as though remembering where it needed to be, continued on its course up the chimney". The author gives us the story from several different perspectives so that we can better understand. This is a very well written engaging story about a place and its people during a part of WWII that I knew very little about. Thanks Mr. Duke for this very human lesson.
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Karla
4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing Book
Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2019
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Seeing the occupation of Crete from three different viewpoints have more detail and a better overall description of what happened. It also showed how the conflict shaped the people involved.
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Kurt Wagner
5.0 out of 5 stars Much more than a war novel!
Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2020
Dr. Philip Duke writes a very perceptive and empathetic story, capturing the flavor of the people of the Cretan village and the soldiers who fought there. I feel that Duke excels at and transcends the genre of historical fiction and military fiction. Not only is his research exacting, portrayals of the geography and culture of Crete perceptive and accurate, and connections to global, military, and sociopolitical spheres of the WW2 setting perfect, but the story is also about characters with well-developed personas we can relate to and care for. It's an outstanding book.
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Top reviews from other countries

PaulCrete
5.0 out of 5 stars Very Poignant
Reviewed in Germany on April 11, 2022
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This is a novel but it is certainly representative of what happened to many Cretans during the German occupation. I found it very moving, particularly so as I live in Crete so am interested in its history. I highly recommend reading this book...
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J R Francis
5.0 out of 5 stars Great reading
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 30, 2022
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I love reading WW2 novels set in places I have visited as it brings realism to them. I am fortunate to have travelled widely in Europe including the Chania area of Crete so I found no difficulty with this novel. Well written and a most enjoyable book that I found difficult to put down. Sorry it had to end. I love a story with a beginning, a middle and an end and this book fills that criteria. Very sad but poignant.
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Lesley Nicholls
4.0 out of 5 stars An almost forgotten Episode of WWII
Reviewed in Canada on April 25, 2019
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The German Invasion and subsequent occupation is an almost forgotten event of WWII. Unless you have read Beever's excellent book Crete: The Battle and the Resistance, you may not be aware of the disaster this was for Commonwealth troops. Indeed a case of defeat being snatched from the jaws of victory.

This book is the story of a Cretan family in a small village during the period during the invasion of Crete and the beginning of the occupation and resistance during the period May - November 1941. It is also the story of two soldiers, one British and one German who become embroiled in the invasion and its bloody aftermath.

While the bulk of the novel is set in the northwest Crete, an area with which the author is familiar, there are some very well written scenes of the home life of two of the protagonists; Paul from Liverpool and Dieter from Berlin. I particularly liked the description of foggy Liverpool - again an area with which the author is familiar having been born there. The other characters, are natives of a small Cretan village up in the hills behind the north coast of Crete where the Grandmother, Anastasia, who we met briefly in Duke's first book, A Terrible Unrest, is the matriarch of a small family and the story draws them together with the two soldiers. The descriptions of the Cretan countryside and the hardscrabble life of subsistence farmers living in what were fairly inhospitable circumstances are very well done.

There are a couple of quite graphic battles between the allies and Germans and Paul is injured and begins to join the long trek of allied troops across the mountains to the south coast of Crete where he hopes to be picked up by the Royal Navy (which actually happened). Of the two soldiers I found Paul the most sympathetic and best drawn, Dieter was a bit of cypher, probably to be expected as he was cast in the role of the nasty Nazi, though I did feel some sympathy for him as the book progressed.

All in all this is a book worth reading. I wouldn't describe it as an enjoyable book; the topic is too serious for that, but it grabbed me from the start and I will be reading it again

I would have liked a map of Crete in the book, it would have been of help to those not familiar with the Island. While the village is fictional some idea of where the main towns and places mentioned like the White Mountains, Souda Bay and Maleme etc. would be useful.
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Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars A very interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 13, 2021
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Semi historical & semi fiction the book summarises the constant juxta position of individuals before, during and after the Battle for Crete. It not only deals with what was a ferocious battle lasting some 11 days but gives an understanding as to the feelings of both a British & a German soldier and the feelings of their families when they are called up to serve in their respective armies. It gives great insight into the way an individual soldier responds to his superiors & his comrades as well as the feelings attributable to both victory & defeat. For those with an interest in WW2 history in the Balkans & the Aegean area it is a worthwhile read
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A 'must read' for lovers of Crete
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 2, 2020
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This was only the second time in my longish life that I have felt moved to write to an author, but I just had to tell Philip Duke personally how much I enjoyed his book, having read many Cretan based books both fiction and non fiction and visited the island many times.
In this extremely well researched novel he has perfectly captured the dreadful recent history of the island and the spirit and character of its people. He has made horror readable.The way he has woven the story around the main characters is very different from other novels.
It is beautifully written.
I have just ordered his previous novel and will eagerly await his next.....
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