Overview

When War Came to Paradise is the story of a teenage boy whose ordinary life was interrupted when war came to the mountains of Crete, his homeland. As efficient Nazi brutality terrorized Cretan villages, the villagers fought back with whatever they had, including their knives and their knowledge of the land. In this fight for survival, Mihalis Paradisanos grew up quickly to respond to the needs of his family and his people: At the age of 14, he took over the work of his family's farm to make sure his family didn't go hungry. Soon after, he became more directly involved in the Cretan resistance as a runner for a British intelligence unit-a role that led to his capture and torture at the hands of the Gestapo. He managed to escape and survive, which wasn't the first time nor the last that this young man evaded death during the war. The spirit of the Cretan people comes to life in this first-person account of resistance and resilience.