Author Stavros Christodoulou reads, selects, and recommends
I’m not in a position to explain what great literature is—that, after all, is the job of literary theorists. But when I recently finished reading Theodoros Tsomidis’s book, *Birth—A Story in Three Eras* (Patakis Publications, 2023), I felt that this was one such instance. Dark passions and two births set against the backdrop of 1920s Paris and Italy during World War II. It’s a page-turner.
I also wholeheartedly recommend the book by our fellow countrywoman Erato Ioannou, *“Nobody’s”* (The Purple Squirrel Press, 2024), in which three outcasts meet in a “non-place” in the no-man’s-land of Nicosia.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
In stark contrast to this dystopian Cypriot reality stands Damianos Agravaras’s *“Oh Lala!”* (Nisos Publications, 2025). A torrential narrative in which, in just 170 pages, the story of the fascinating life of Evangelos Hatzidimitriou— also known as Lala, from the 1940s until his death from AIDS in the early 1990s.
“The Bookseller of Gaza” by Rachid Benzine (Psychogios Publications, 2025) is a much “quieter” novel set against the backdrop of an extremely turbulent era. The story of the elderly Palestinian, spread across the yellowed pages of books, resembles an island bathed in light amid a bombed-out landscape.
The reissue of Jean Genet’s novel *The Brawler of Brest* by Metaixmio Publications (2025) proved to be a very good reason to pick it up again after many years. It is, of course, a masterpiece, and the emotion I felt while reading it was the same as the first time. Of the books I’ve read in recent months, I’d like to highlight the works of two authors I greatly admire: Julia Ganassou and Eleni Priovolou.
Ganasou’s *The Second Coming* (Kastaniotis Publications, 2024) tells a story inspired by real events that took place during the armed conflicts in Ukraine and the bombings in the Gaza Strip.
A world in disarray, with two women trying to survive in the maelstrom of war’s brutality. Priovolou’s *The Book of Job* (Kastaniotis Publications, 2026) takes us back to another era, where women suffer under suffocating social restrictions. The book reveals the shining exception of Alexandra Papadopoulou in Constantinople. A tenacious teacher, advocate of the demotic language movement, and intellectual, she became synonymous with the women’s avant-garde.
Finally, for the summer vacation, I picked out three works of Greek literature from the unread pile on my bookshelf. Panagiotis Evangelidis’s novel *Konstantinos* is a reissue by Gennitria Publications (2025). It is the iconic queer novel of the 1990s, which is being reintroduced to the public nearly thirty years later.
Also being reissued is “Kasko” by Sergios Gakas, published by Kastaniotis Publications (2025), with a foreword and afterword by Andreas Apostolidis. It is considered one of the most important noir novels in Greece and was highly praised by critics.
Finally, *Vasili Tsouikov’s Binoculars* by Vasilis Gkourogiannis was published by Metaixmio Publications (2025) and spans a period that continues to fascinate me as a reader: the years of the Occupation and the Civil War, set against a backdrop of lives cut short and ideological obsessions—in other words, the most fertile ground for literature to flourish.
