Books by Pauline Hager

Giorgi's Greek Tragedy

After the fall of Constantinople (present day Istanbul), the Ottoman Turkish Empire occupied Greece from 1453 to 1829. Set in the year 1790 in the Taygetos Mountains of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece, the story recounts the tale of eleven-years-old Giorgi and his family. Elite agents of the Ottoman Sultan’s Janissary Corps murder his parents and Giorgi longs for revenge. As teenagers, together with his younger brother Yianni, they leave their aunt’s home and climb the higher, craggy mountains, seeking to join forces with their childhood hero and guerrilla leader, Kapetan Zaharias, and his outlawed Greek freedom fighters. Ensconced in deep caves, they live and train to battle the Turks. Tragic events continue to shadow Giorgi in his endeavor to fight the Turks.

Residing in the valleys below, the overworked and overtaxed peasants are left to fend for themselves, laboring long hours in the fields to feed their families, and to pay their taxes. Under Turkish rule, Greece was mired in abject poverty. The Turkish pashas ruled with a combination of laxity (change your Christian religion and pay no taxes) or by extortion, (pay the right person and you are left alone.) Other constraints preventing the Greeks from advancement were their deeply rooted, centuries-old Greek traditions. The peasants, especially the widows, were bound to them, crushing any hope of change. In 1821, the peasants rebelled, and with the aid of The Greek Diaspora and The Great Powers of England, France, and Russia, Greece gained her freedom in 1829, when the Treaty of Adrianople was signed. Love of family, love between a man and a woman, and love of country are recurring themes.

For anyone interested in learning about Greece’s culture, her people, the events leading to the war of independence from Turkey, and an understanding of Greece’s problems in this century, read this book.

Memoirs of an American Housewife in Japan

My husband Randy and I lived in Naka, Japan from July 1994 to December 1996. Randy was invited by the Japanese government to work on a multi-national project, and after much soul-searching, we accepted. We lived in housing designed for Westerners, and our neighbors included people from The European Union, Russia, Canada, Japan and America. Completely ignorant of complicated rules of Japanese social behavior, I committed many faux pas, which I describe humorously in my book.

In addition to visiting several exotic places in Japan, such as Nikko National Park, Fuji-Hakone-Izu National Park, Hokkaido Island, among others, we also visited Hong Kong, Lantau Island, China, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand. When I returned to my home in San Diego, I wrote a book about my fascinating experiences.

Nikko National Park

If you're planning a trip to Japan, or just want to know first hand about Japanese culture, their educational system, their homes, toilets, narrow roads with open trenches, food shopping, and every day life, this book is for you.