Greece

"Vassa Solomou Xanthaki's novella The Marriage is considered to be a small classic of Greek literature, a work that is distinguished by the immediacy and freshness of its language while retaining a deep sensibility to traditional life in rural Greece. First published in 1975, it has been reprinted in Greek numerous times and is included in the esteemed Apostolidis Anthology, a collection of the best Greek narrative writing from the 19th century until the present day. In 1994 it was staged as a play with enormous success by the Thessalian Theatre Company, and went on to be performed throughout Greece, with a two-year run in Athens and tours to Cyprus and in the Balkans. The Marriage has also been published in German, Spanish, and Polish, and shortly will appear in French. The author writes: 'The subject of this book is simple: the wedding customs and songs of the village of Ambelakia in Thessaly as lived and experienced in one particular marriage, that of Lenaki and Nikolas. But after the weeklong wedding ceremonies are over the magical bridal veil of those days is slowly drawn back and, in unadorned contrast to those customs and celebrations, the realities of life begin to impose themselves. This fading away of enchantment together with the role played by the nuptial mystery in the subsequent course of the couple's lives was my ultimate theme. Within the restraints imposed by the bonds of marriage I wanted to search again for the mystical veins of tradition, especially in the figure of the woman of the countryside, that ""deep-set rock"", the pillar of the race. Show more Show less "

From its first appearance in 1903 The Murderess has been regarded as Alexandros Papadiamandis’s finest work. Set on his native island of Skiathos it tells the story of Hadoula, a widow with grown-up children, who has convinced herself that it is better little girls should leave this life when young so that they and their parents should not suffer the trials that inevitably would be inflicted on them by an inequitable society. In the throes of this misguided compassion she first murders her own granddaughter and afterwards finds herself set on a course she is unable to stop despite the promptings of her conscience and her awareness of the consequences. Papadiamandis charts this course and the events in her life that preceded it, and against a background of the island’s verdant and untrodden places and the living presence of the Church he explores the particular quality evil has of disguising itself as good, but without ever passing judgement on the murderess herself. Long considered one of Greece's most important writers, Papadiamandis's reflections on and observations of modern Greek life define the Greek experience in a way unmatched by any of his contemporaries. his new translation of The Murderess has been undertaken and published to mark the centenary of Papadiamandis's death.

Alexanor is a man who has seen too much blood. He has left the sword behind him to become a healer in the greatest sanctuary in Greece, turning his back on war. But war has followed him to his refuge at Epidauros, and now a battle to end the freedom of Greece is all around him. The Mediterranean superpowers of Rome, Egypt and Macedon are waging their proxy wars on Hellenic soil, turning Greek farmers into slaves and mercenaries. When wounded soldier Philopoemen is carried into his temple, Alexanor believes the man's wounds are mortal but that he is not destined to die. Because he knows Philopoemen will become Greece's champion. Its last hero. The new Achilles.

Ο "Συμβολαιογράφος" (1855) είναι το καλύτερο αφήγημα του Αλέξανδρου Ρίζου Ραγκαβή: διαδραματίζεται στην Κεφαλονιά τη δεύτερη δεκαετία του 19ου αιώνα και αναβιώνει την κεφαλονίτικη κοινωνία της εποχής με μια ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ερωτικού πάθους, στην οποία οι ήρωες συγχέουν τα όρια ανάμεσα στο "καλό" και στο "κακό". Για τον νεοελληνιστή Roderick Beaton αυτή η "ρεαλιστική ιστορία δολοπλοκίας, αγωνίας και ρομάντζου", μπορεί άνετα να συμπεριληφθεί στην ομάδα εκείνη των μυθιστορημάτων των Collins και του Poe "και μεταξύ των πρώτων αστυνομικών μυθιστορημάτων που γράφτηκαν ποτέ".

A story of the passion between a man of fifty "plus" and a girl of nineteen, a seemingly not unusual situation were it not for the fact that everything that takes place between the two "protagonists* is constantly and faithfully recorded by someone: the mature "grey" woman who is the man's past and who chronicles the lovers' passion with adoration and respect. The place is Salonica, the Old Curiosity Shop, Africa and the prevailing element is Passion, destructive, merciless, rapacious, without inhibitions and "objections" until the End. This End which is their life in a state of decay and which moment by moment passes through the eyes of the "grey woman", a road parallet to that of city life and so very solitary. Their real find is not some sort of fate that awaits them or an ordinary death; it is not catastrophe or a normal ending for a newspaper story. Daring, harsh, rough and at the same time intensely erotic, Costoula Mitropoulou's book is yet another deep incision into the enernal problem of human relations and of the Passion that ends only with our own end.

This first novel in an exciting new series takes readers to ancient Greece to follow the adventures of Nicolaos, son of a minor sculptor, as he becomes embroiled in murder and political intrigue.

“Alice is trapped by her misreading of love in a marriage that stifles her passion and independence. The “person” of her husband
is driven by ambition – his own material advantage. With uncompromising rationality Alice analyses the beliefs and actions that underlie their marital relationship. Their drama plays out against a background of Oxford university and village life where Alice comes to realise that love is more easily recognised than understood.”
“Nikos Athanasou probes into the lives of his characters with forensic skill, revealing how emotional insecurities can trigger dysfunctional philosophies of love.” Rhyll McMaster
The Person of the Man is an exploration of love and possession set against the backdrop of university and country life in Oxford. It analyses the pathological marriage between an Oxford academic of Australian origin and his English wife. The basis of this marriage is essentially the universal Hobbesian dictum that “what most people regard as love is really just approval or more precisely the absence of disapproval”. When Martin's betrayal and the tragedy that follows reveal the true Person of the Man Alice discovers that love cannot be analysed, it can only be understood.

1339. A dark and difficult time. Romania is rent by disputes among warring royal houses striving for ascendancy. Knights errant, blood-thirsty nobles, scheming courtiers and mysterious travelers in the night play leading parts in a bloody game of supremacy. The monk Dimitris Spartino, one of the last survivors of the patrician Spartinos family, is forced to flee when a man of royal descent slays his brother and tries to murder him as well. As ha and his retinue are trying to make their ay to Constantinople, he encounters an enigmatic creature that is worshipped as a god, the sacred child. From that moment on, fate unites them in a terrible secret.