Appointment in Delphi
by Thimios Gioulos

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The oracle at Delphi once guided the paths of kings and commoners alike, from the Temple of Apollo high on Mount Parnassus. At one time, it was considered to be the centre of the world, but in the tiny and peaceful Greek village of Ano Hora, hidden deep in its shadow, life has revolved around herding and harvesting for countless generations, following the patterns of the seasons―interrupted only by the vagaries of the human heart, which time and again had led brave Greeks away from home to fight for causes they believed in. But when those battles start to hit closer to home, things can’t help but change forever. With the onset of WWII, Greece is invaded by German and Italian forces, pitting neighbour against neighbour and brother against brother. Inevitably, WWII gives birth to the Greek Civil War and the Paidomazoma, wherein 28,000 Greek children are abducted by Greek communist rebels, and transported behind the Iron Curtain, in order to “save them” from the royalist, capitalist agenda. This is a story of courage and determination, qualities for which the Greek people are famous, having never surrendered or bowed down to any outside force ... but what do they do when their own ideologies start to tear them apart from the inside? Focusing on a single family from Ano Hora, Appointment in Delphi beautifully showcases the physical and emotional cost of war and the nobility and self-sacrifice of people willing to lose everything they have in order to protect the ones they love.

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“Appointment in Delphi” is an extraordinary tale of the amazing events leading to WWII, and the devastating, complex Greek civil war. A powerful drama pitting countrymen against countrymen. It is as if each element of the book is a metaphor for the other, dealing with shattered families and a shattered country. It is amazing in so many ways. First off, I love the characters. They are written with so much affection and insight, that as a reader I not only feel know them, but believe them completely, and more importantly care about them deeply. The complexity of their human emotions, and the author’s elegant telling of their deepest feelings, while never neglecting to reveal their weaknesses as well as their strengths, make us believe them completely.

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Born in Greece before WWII, Thimios Gioulos moved to the United States in 1951, to live with an uncle in Connecticut. He was 17. Eventually drafted into the army, he served in Germany from 1955 to 1957, and upon his return, studied under the GI Bill. He graduated from UCLA in 1962, with a Bachelor of Science degree, and went to work in film distribution, and the foreign sales of motion pictures. Appointment in Delphi was inspired by real events―incidents witnessed by the author and/or told to him by others who were there during those turbulent years―and the experience of seeing close friends end up on opposing sides of a political/ideological conflict. It’s a story that he knew needed to be told.

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