Civil war broke out in his native Greece in 1948 when Nicholas Gage was a child. Communist insurgents were kidnapping children and sending them to re-education camps inside Communist territory. Nicholas and his three sisters eluded them when their mother arranged for them to escape to the United States. At age nine, Nicholas went to live with his father in Massachusetts. His mother, who remained in Greece, was imprisoned, tortured, and executed. When Gage grew up, he became an investigative reporter for the New York Times. He returned to Greece and learned about his mother’s fate, which led to the writing of his bestselling book, Eleni. Currently, Gage works full-time as a biographical and historical writer