The Balkan Trilogy
by Olivia Manning
The Balkan Trilogy (all three books are bound together in the edition pictured, published by NYRB Classics) follows the fortunes of an English couple, Guy and Harriet Pringle. Newly married, they make their way to Romania by train—Guy has a teaching job in Bucharest—just as the Nazis are invading Poland. This is one of the great novels of World War II, and based on Manning’s own experiences.
Recommendations from our site
“I think she was one of the very best novelists of the 20th century. These books, The Balkan Trilogy—and The Levant Trilogy—were her best pieces. What I found fascinating was all the drama of the Second World War in rather peripheral places. The drama and the feeling of the war were written against a background of a young couple who had just got married and who were very different in their outlook on life, and the problems of their marriage.” Read more...
Richard Beeston, Foreign Correspondent
