The Thread - Tapa dura

'Sweeping, magnificently detailed and ambitious... All those who loved The Island, her hugely successful first novel, will fall on it' (The Sunday Times)

'Sweeping, magnificently detailed and ambitious' (The Sunday Times)

'Fast-paced narrative and utterly convincing sense of place' (Guardian)

'Hislop's fast-paced narrative and utterly convincing sense of place make her novel a rare treat' (Guardian)

'[Hislop's] Med-set period romances may fill a million holiday suitcases. Yet she has brought something fresh, unusual and rather intrepid to an often vapid genre, with a tenacious attention to the tangled and controversial history that fuels her plots... The Thread will entertain and enlighten legions of readers who, like it or not, will never pick up a historian such as Mark Mazower. Its oddly vehement political edge and fervent multicultural sympathies cut through the helpings of schmaltz and sentiment to generate Hislop's characteristic sour-sweet flavour. That taste can clearly tickle the palate of millions' (Independent)

'Fresh, tenacious and rather intrepid' (Independent)

'This is storytelling at its best and just like a tapestry, when each thread is sewn into place, so emerge the layers and history of relationships past and present' (Sunday Express)

'Hislop does her research and is very good at interweaving the lives of individuals into the backcloth of great events, giving the reader a history lesson that doesn't feel like one... Recommended' (Daily Mail)

Her best novel yet (Scotsman)

'A brilliant page turner and destined to become a reading group staple, THE THREAD is rich with drama and historical detail' (Glamour)