4 out of 5 stars

The publisher provided a copy of this, free of charge, in return for an honest review.

A wren is normally a very difficult bird to see, but you know they are there because of the noise that they can make. How a bird that tiny can have such a loud song is surreal. Hoffman is lucky enough to see one wren one day, and then he sees another, and another. They are all heading towards an abandoned swallow’s nest, probably to keep warm in the approaching winter storm that is about to hit Prespa.

How Julian Hoffman and his wife ended up in this part of Greece is quite a story, but it began with a book by Giorgos Catsadorakis called Prespa: A Story of Man and Nature. Hoffman and his wife managed to read the entire book as well as polish off two bottles of wine, and not only did they want to visit the place, but they had decided that they wanted to leave London and move there.

It would be a huge, but exciting step into the unknown.

They arrived at a guest house in the village of Agios Germanos a little while after. The proprietor of the establishment asked them how long they were thinking of staying, and they told him they intended to move there for good. Vassilis took on the task of finding them a permanent place to live. It took a while, but he succeeded. They piled their scant belongings in the corner of the house and began their new life.

The village that he lives in is shaped by the mountains and the lakes. They are known as ancient lakes, and there are only a few that are this old around the world. The great age means that the diversity of plants and other life is huge. It is something that he comes to appreciate as he walks through past ancient junipers and into an oak forest. But it is also a reminder that the old ecosystems are equally reliant on human presence and that the absence of people can cause other pressures.

They slowly met the village residents, and Germano finally got to use the one English phrase that he had learnt on them! He was one of those who, after WWII, had been forced to go into exile. When he returned to Greece a while later, he was interred and then tortured for being on the other side ideologically, all accused with scant evidence. Even though the residents are Greek, they don’t necessarily feel a strong allegiance to the home country; rather, they have an empathy with people who are just across the border from them, as they know they are all in it together.

Hoffman delves into his past, explaining how he went from liking to natural world to loving it. It happened on a trip to India, and he can pinpoint the exact moment to when he saw some Sarus cranes. It was a moment that he knew changed his life and new him a new purpose and direction.

The village that they reside in, is described as remote. However, back in the 1990s, it was also restricted; permits needed to be applied for and approved before you could travel there because it shares borders with Albania and Macedonia. These restrictions have eased, but there are still times when people need to take a madcap route to get from one place to another rather than being able to cross the border directly.

Their first years in Prespa, they grew their own vegetables organically and even made a business from it. It was tough work, though and a very steep learning curve. However, working the land this way connected them to the place on a deeper level. They would find traces of the past in their ground, too; coins and bullet cases would regularly come up as they dug the soil over.

This part of Greece gets very cold; not only do they have to put up with snow most winters, but if they are not careful, they can get frozen pipes that can take a month to thaw out. Water is a precious resource up there; they used the local river to irrigate their land and closely followed the local rules for equality. They would find that some would take more than their fair share and it would cause all manner of issues, and is kind of a reflection of what is happening elsewhere in the world.

Getting to know the residents of the village is the key that unlocks the history of the place. Stories of the first road being built and learning about the way that the water levels in the lake have risen and fallen over time taught them so much. They were helped out at one particular incident by their neighbours and were left shaken and grateful for all the assistance they received.

One of things that always surprises me about the pictures that Hoffman posts on his social media channels is just how much snow he gets there. He lives in a Mediterranean country (albeit at altitude) and gets loads, and I live in Dorset, and we get almost no snow here now. When they first moved, the summers used to be wonderful there, but with climate change, it is becoming far more dangerous with higher temperatures and numerous wildfires in the region, as well as droughts, floods and intense hail. Events that used to occur once a lifetime are now becoming more frequent. Scientist can predict that the frequency of these events will increase; what they can’t predict is how many there will be or their intensity.

In one part of the narrative, Hoffman writes about the COVID pandemic. How surreal the various lockdowns and restrictions that were imposed on populations by governments and health professionals as we tried to get a grip on the virus. It reminds him of the stories that his great-grandfather told him about being interred during World War 1, not because of anything that he had done, but because of where he had happened to come from. He posed no threat, but the authorities at the time decided not to take a chance with him and many others.

In their second year growing organic food, they had a massive shock when their biggest customer said that they didn’t need anything over the summer. So, they started preserving food and sales of these would become the bulk of their income in time. Sadly, even that came to an end as the financial crisis of 2008 bit.

Unsure about what to do next, they considered emigrating to Canada, but dithered over the decision. That dithering was a blessing in disguise, as an opportunity to do conservation work and ornithological surveys arose. They now had a more secure future and could stay in their village. His wife ended up managing a bear diet study, which meant collecting lots of bear scat (ye,s they do crap in the woods and lots of other places too). Living near bears and wolves has its own pressures, and Hoffman has a couple of really close encounters. Local farmers see them as a threat, and unless compensation schemes are quick to pay for losses, farmers tend to take matters into their own hands, with inevitable, tragic endings.

Brexit (sigh) adds another layer of complexity to them living in Greece. They and many others had the right to live in the country until we took the stupid decision to leave. To stay, they need to undertake citizenship, and whilst waiting at the hotel near where this takes place, they are distracted by the number of kestrels whizzing by.

It would be a back injury that would spell the end of their small holding, and Hoffman needs a trip to the local hospital for medical intervention. While in the hospital, he was given a pen and a pad, and he began his writing journey, starting with a story about pelicans, and ending up with this, his third book, and this doesn’t feel like this is the end of his writing journey.

Giorgos Catsadorakis’ book was what inspired them to make this journey to Prespa, and he was passionate about the pelicans of the lake, too. So much so that Catsadorakis persuaded the fishermen to be proud of them and not see them as a threat to their livelihood. It worked, though sadly, the pelicans now have multiple threats from climate change, HN51 and the lake water levels that are causing havoc.

People raise their voices against things; we rarely raise them for.

This is a lovely book about the path that Hoffman took to find a place to live in the world. Prespa is his anchor point, and it gives him the strength to move around the world, knowing that he still has that Lifeline attached. It is very well written, too. Having heard him speak at a book event, he is very knowledgeable about all sorts of things, and that same well of information comes across in this book. If I were to have one minor gripe about the book, it didn’t follow a linear timeline, which is my personal preference; it is wide-ranging and jumps around a fair amount. If you are looking for a book that combines a heady blend of travel, natural history and environmental concerns, then this should be on your reading list.

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