Andreas Mavrogiannis reads, selects, and recommends books
This summer has been a bit strange. Not just the weather, but also various odd signs.
With everything I’ve been juggling, I feel like I’m falling short—both in terms of the number of books and the time I devote to them—compared to my usual reading habits, whether it’s fiction or other genres.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
I have, however, read some important texts that fill a large part of that gap.
Here are a few of them:
Olympia Stylianou has released her second book, *The Girl from Nowhere*. A crime novel, billed as a Mediterranean thriller. Alongside the story and its suspenseful plot, it is also a vivid, character-driven portrayal of contemporary Cypriot reality, social stratification, and the problems of coexistence against the backdrop of the Green Line, immigration, and utilitarianism.
Stathis Tsagarousianos, *Goodbye, Old World* (Tsagarousianos Publications, 2008). A highly commendable series of interviews and conversations with notable figures from the worlds of literature and the arts during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. A world that has passed. I sought it out and am very happy to have read it. Above all, for the interview with the ethereal Flery Danatonaki.
Jean-Baptiste Andréa, *Veiller sur elle* (Iconoclaste, Paris, 2023), winner of the Goncourt Prize. An incredible love story between two people from two diametrically opposed worlds, set in Italy during the first half of the 20th century, against the backdrop of World War I, the rise of fascism, and the tragic events that followed.
Jonathan Crowe, *What a Lovely Loot* (Polis Publications). A very contemporary work with a very distinctive writing style. With directness and without pretense, it describes contemporary English society with its contradictions, tensions, and the erosion of its qualitative characteristics, which are giving way to a cynical and Machiavellian conception of survival and/or dominance.
In Geneva, where I spent the last few months, I was reading the book *The League of Nations and International Law* (Cambridge University Press)—a monumental volume featuring essays by experts in political and diplomatic history and international relations that trace the birth and maturation of multilateralism within the League of Nations, the progressive development and codification of international law, and the international community’s effort to put into practice the cry “never again” that emerged from the ashes of the world wars.
Finally, Marguerite Porete’s mystical book *Li miroir des âmes simples anéanties* (Espaces Libres), which was burned at the stake as heretical in 1310 by the Inquisition. An extraordinary spiritual quest that contributed to the formation of what is known as the Western spirit
