"* AN FT BEST SUMMER BOOK 2025 / A LoveReading Best Book of the Year 2025 / Longlisted for the Anglo-Hellenic Runciman Award ‘Quite magical... A book that will refresh your soul.’ Carol Drinkwater, author of The Olive Farm The true story of a courageous leap into a new life. ___ In the summer of 2000, Julian Hoffman and his wife Julia found themselves disillusioned with city life. Overwhelmed by long commutes, they stumbled upon a book about Prespa, Greece – a remote corner of Europe filled with stone villages, snow-capped mountains and wildlife, which they would soon call home. Prespa is a crossroads. Where three countries come together around two huge lakes, where limestone collides with granite and heat-pulsing Mediterranean ecosystems meet their colder, Balkan relatives. Here, languages, wartime histories and rivers converge, and pelicans, bears and people leave their footprints on the water’s edge – next to unexploded bombs. Lifelines is not only the tale of a courageous