Paradise Lost: Smyrna 1922

By Giles Milton

PARADISE LOST tells the forgotten story of the sack of Smyrna, once the most opulent and cosmopolitan city in the Ottoman Empire.

In September, 1922, the Turkish cavalry swept into Smyrna - the crowning triumph to their three year war with Greece.  The city’s Christian inhabitants feared that the newly-victorious Turkish army would now unleash a terrible fury. 

Yet most were confident that the 21 Allied ships in the bay - British, American and French - would protect them. Within ten days of the Turkish army’s arrival, Smyrna had ceased to exist. ‘Smyrna Wiped Out’ was the headline in the New York Times. It was not hyperbole: it was a bold statement of fact.

Paradise Lost is a tale of greed, brutality and cynical realpolitik. It is also a story of extraordinary heroism. One man - an American named Asa Jennings - was to save the lives of 250,000 desperate refugees.

It was the greatest humanitarian rescue mission of the early 20th century.

Paradise Lost is a unique work of historical narrative. It is drawn from the hitherto unknown diaries and journals of Levantine Smyrna and recreates the twilight world of the doomed city.

2 Previously owned copies. Some inscriptions in front cover, but otherwise good condition.

426 pages

Basic Books (2008)