Title: Kapelis “The Hatmaker”
Author: Andreas Kappa
Publisher: XlibrisAU
ISBN: 978-1-5434-0114-1
Pages: 326
Genre: Historical Non-Fiction/Autobiography
Reviewed by: Matt Hurd
Pacific Book Review
Kapelis “The Hatmaker” is an ambitious, sweeping chronicle of a family’s lineage and their place throughout history. In many ways, this book reads like the Forrest Gump of historical nonfiction. It takes the reader on a journey that spans nearly 300 years, with many generations, conflicts, and characters along the way. Kappa uses a blend of historical contextual summation and ground-level character sequences to tell this story, quite interestingly the method is highly successful.
Hatmaker begins in 1780’s Greece, with the first titular “Hatmaker” of the Kapelis family, Kostas. As one of the premiere hatmakers in the country, he finds himself with access to the ruling elite of the Ottomans (the occupiers of Greece). This puts him in a very crucial position for such a young, unassuming man – and he becomes one of the most legendary and mysterious spies in the country’s history.
From there, the book traces the Kapelis’ family lineage throughout history, encompassing travels, wars, and work. Soldiers, family men, and warriors alike are all contained in these pages. The author has an expert grasp on the history of the family, and does strong work when it comes to showing their place in the history of the last 250 plus years. The author’s understanding of Greek history is also quite admirable. The format and arrangement of the book could be clearer, as between the larger moving parts of history and the extensive family history that’s present, it is a massive amount of information for any reader to track and digest. In future publications, adding a family tree and a historical timeline for the reader to refer to would likely clear up this issue.
The dialogue present in the anecdotal sections of the book, while conceptually a refreshing change from a fully narrative history text, suffers from being a bit dry. Few characters portrayed in these pages have distinct voices, as their dialogue is purely expository. Especially since the book covers so many different people in so many different periods of history, the lack of unique dialogue for any of them is a drawback.
The Hatmaker is clearly a passion project for this author and the effort is a very commendable one. Readers interested in ground-level Greek history and familial ties will certainly find a satisfying read here.
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