Also available in Greek
Price: 40TL
Review Excerpts:
I think it’s been years since I last read a book written in Greek and come out feeling so euphorically content. The Progenitors (ed. by To Rodakio) has functioned as a spiritual trigger for looking into people and situations. Its composite plot makes it look like a puzzle where you are called upon to piece together fragments and heroes. The setting is the author’s island of origin, Cyprus, but also New York and Holland. Breathing next to fictional characters are personalities such as Hieronymus Bosch, Archbishop Leontios of Cyprus, Marika Papagkika, poets Francois Villon and Arthur Rimbaud – so skillfully indeed that fiction blurs into reality… Politics, art and philosophy are touched upon either directly or indirectly, realism clashes with metaphysics, innocence with guilt, paganism with Christianity – not without hinting at a conspiracy theory. And if all this sounds chaotic, like an improvised jazz melody, just remember that some of these music pieces have acquired mythical status. -Demetris Mastroyannites, Athens Voice, 2016
In The Progenitors, the fruit of a precociously conquered maturity, Sofroniou succeeds in interweaving different techniques and themes of postmodern literature with shapes and
patterns of traditional fiction to seamlessly make up an integral whole. Exceptionally adept with both traditions, the author knows how to put them into a wondrous use. –Yiorgos Pinakoulas, “Bookpress” periodical, 2016
Sofronis Sofroniou has succeeded not only in conjoining heterogeneous primary sources but mainly in breathing life into stories of either real or fictitious persons – and with a wealth of references from painting, music, literature, harmoniously incorporated into the main body to deliver a spaceless, timeless novel. -Vasiliki Christi, “Diavasame” periodical, 2016
I would characterize Sofronis Sofroniou as “the most important Cypriot writer of his generation” without the slightest exaggeration, but he is much more than that. He is a
first-time author who has written the best novel I have read in recent years, one that starts utterly sneakily, in a relaxed, rather nonchalant manner before taking a firm hold of you so
unawares that by the time you finish it you are left wondering why on earth there’s nothing about him in the Greek press; why hasn’t he been asked to give interviews, and why isn’t his name splashed across the Cypriot and Greek press. In The Progenitors he revives Cyprus of the early 20th century as well as New York of the same period, revisiting events and stories yielded through extensive research and a quest strongly suggestive of scientific background. – Tasos Brekoulakis, LIFO, 2016
Without a doubt, the fictional width within which real and fictitious persons move and meet is impressive, all the more so when arranged by a first-time author. Equally impressive is the way he manages different narrative techniques as well as the polyphony articulated as either third-person or first-person narrative. -Elena Houzouri, “O Anagnostis” periodical, 2016
İLK YARATILANLAR (The Progenitors)
4.00€
Availability: In stock
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