Guest of the ilb 2003
The writer Ersi Sotiropoulos
belongs to the avant-garde of the Greek literary world. She was
born in Patras in 1953, studied Philosophy and Cultural Anthropology in
Florence and went on to work in the Greek embassy in Rome. She
published her debut novel 'I fársa' (Engl: The Trick) in 1982, in which
she describes life in a strict patriarchal society. The novel
centres around two women who make anonymous telephone calls to
arbitrary men and expose them, as representatives of their sex, to
public ridicule on behalf of the whole male world. Readers and
critics gave the book an enthusiastic reception. Since her
successful debut, Sotiropoulos, who also writes columns and
screenplays, has published further novels, short story collections and
poetry in her home country. So far only her fifth novel 'Zig-Zag
stis Nerantzies' has been published in German translation, as 'Bittere
Orangen' in 1999. In 2000 the original text became the first
Greek work of prose to receive the country’s two most important
literary awards: the Greek state prize for literature and the prize of
the literature magazine 'Diavaso'.
'Zig-Zag stis Nerantzies' traces the fortunes of a group of young
people, whose destinies follow winding paths to become interlinked.
They include the mysteriously ill Lia, her unemployed brother
Sid, the strange male nurse Sotiris and the dreamy girl Nina.
When Lia feels badly treated by her nurse in an Athens hospital she
asks her brother to teach him a lesson. Sid then steals into the
life of the lone wolf Sotiris. However, an unusual friendship
arises between the two men, contrary to Lia’s plan. Sid is pulled
in to a grotesque murder plot by the nurse, with which he intends to
get rid of the twelve year-old Nina, who knows an embarrassing
secret. For Nina, one of the most moving characters in the novel,
writing is the only way for her to articulate herself and to be able to
escape the "idiots and zombies". Sotiropoulos‘s novel, whose
original title means literally 'Zigzag under the Seville Oranges',
thrives on its obscure black humour and passion for the absurd.
The author describes life in a society between tradition and modernity
using precise and unsentimental language, and tells of the search for
love and closeness as well as of the impossibility of sharing one’s
feelings. Continually changing perspectives emphasize the
isolation of Sotiropoulos‘s heroes. The author lives in Athens.
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