Book review: ‘Lifelines’ by Julian Hoffman

Twenty-five years ago, my friend Julian Hoffman and his future wife, Julia, happened to read a book about the Prespa region straddling the borders of Greece, Albania and North Macedonia, and made the somewhat impetuous decision to up-sticks from London and move there immediately. This book might tempt you to do the same.

Lifelines tells the story of how Julian and Julia made a home for themselves in northwestern Greece, close to the geologically ancient and environmentally significant Prespa lakes. It’s a story of friendship, local identity and ecology, and of the challenges faced by human and non-human populations in times of political, demographic and environmental upheaval. There are encounters with returned exiles and people from different cultures, with pelicans and bears, and with the Dalai Lama and an unexploded bomb. There are house-fires and frozen pipes, Covid and bird-flu crises, and threats from an ill-planned wind power station. And there are signs of hope.

Julian Hoffman is a personal friend whose previous books I’ve very much enjoyed, so there was never any danger of my not enjoying this one too. But, personal bias notwithstanding, Lifelines is a delightful and uplifting book. I encourage you to read it.

Related: The story of that time Julian Hoffman and I went for a walk…