Alki Zei

Alkē Zeē

μυθιστόρημα

Το Καπλάνι τής βιτρίνας

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Winner of the Ibby Prize for Best Book for Teenagers

Tina's Web

The book has received the 2002 Premio Acerbi in Italy. Set in Paris sometime after the 1967 military coup in Greece. Eleni, together with a group of friends and fellow political exiles, finds herself working as an extra in a French film: "The Horror Train." It is not the first time she has been caught up in a deadly drama, nor is it her first ride on a horror train. As the director waves his arms, shouting directions and re-shooting the sequence, Eleni's mind wanders to her first train ride: "Athens-Piraeus. My first long journey by train." "You're Eleni? I'm Achilles." "They don't ask which Achilles. One name is enough..." For the rest of her life, Eleni will be "Achilles' fiancée"; fiancée of the guerrilla leader, the brave, handsome kapetanios whose code name is Achilles. In the demonstrations against the German occupiers of Greece during World War II, in prison where she risks a death sentence during the civil war that followed, in Tashkent where Greek communists fled as political refugees and eventually, in Paris. But throughout, Eleni acquires her own personality with self-determination and independent thinking. As she begins to question the slogans she used to fight for when she blindly followed the leaders of the Party like her fianc, Eleni involves us in her own private world of self-awareness. It is a woman's world, where human warmth and friendships count for more than abstract ideals. The Greek word for a novel is mythistorema, a word that combines myth and history. In her story of a young woman's struggle to survive through a hard period of Greek history, Alki Zei has woven the threads of her own quasi-mythical life into the stuff of history. The novel Achilles' Fiancée has been a top-selling book since it was first published in Greece in 1987. It has also been translated into French, Italian, German, Spanish, Danish and Turkish. "Alki Zei has written history like masters do, gingerly and discreetly." ." Sofia Castellanos, A Cubierta Libros, 2014 "Achilles' Fiancée is a superb book that has marked Greece's modern literature." Demosthene Kourtovic, Scholiastis magazine, 2012 "Good books do not become outdated with time. They are read by new generations of readers, as if they are new every time." Yannis Papatheodorou, Diavazo Magazine, 2012 "Between the lines of the narrative, important issues regarding human dignity and substance, self- determination and freedom, faith and ideology, are touched." George Theocharis, Book Press, 2012 "The narrative becomes immediately compelling because the author manages to convert a biographical story into a collective issue." Anna Paini, Libreria delle Donne di Milano, 1998 Achilles' Fiancée, With a Faber Number Two Pencil and Wildcat under Glass form a sort of trilogy in which 50 years of Greek history is covered by Alki Zei's exquisite and distinguished narrative.

Achilles' Fiancée

Tiger v stekleni omari

Ogni volta che va a prenderlo a scuola in ritardo, il nonno di Andonis tira fuori le scuse più strampalate, come essersi unito a un corteo di studenti ed essere finito manganellato dalla polizia. Il nipote gli crede poco, eppure un po’ alla volta scoprirà che il nonno, ex attore di teatro esiliato durante la dittatura, non si inventa nulla e ha davvero vissuto una vita straordinaria. Così come straordinario è il segreto che la sua famiglia nasconde: perché, infatti, nessuno parla mai della nonna? Nello stile ironico e delicato di Alki Zei, un romanzo pieno di tenerezza che tocca temi come l’impegno civile, la democrazia, il razzismo, l’esilio, la guerra, l’affetto tra nonno e nipote e la testimonianza di chi si è battuto per un mondo più giusto. Titolo selezionato dalla Commissione Europea - EACEA Education, Audiovisual and Culture Executive Agency per il progetto Lettori oggi, cittadini domani presentato da Camelozampa. Traduzione dal greco di Tiziana Cavasino. Cover art e illustrazioni di Andrea Antinori.

Il nonno bugiardo

1970 Mildred Batchelder Award (U.S.A.) / 2007 Premio Andersen - Il mondo dell'infanzia (ITALY) A children's novel Wildcat under Glass, first published in 1963 and translated in about 35 languages, is internationally acclaimed as a classic work having been successfully and repeatedly published in many countries apart from Greece until today. The story is set on an island in Greece during the 1930's as the nation is forced into a Fascist dictatorship. It is told through the eyes of a young girl named Melia, who relates the experiences of her family as they are forced to accept life under a repressive government. The book provides an interesting look at an important period of Greek history and tells it from a child's unsophisticated perspective. The naturalness and liveliness of the dialogue is combined with the seriousness and depth of the meaning. In a playful atmosphere, the reader is aware of and enjoys a mature thought that deals with and analyses social visions while trying to discover the threads that move them. The value of the book consists in precisely this combination. One of its virtues and what makes it universal is that the narration, although set in Greece at a particular period of time, seems somehow spaceless and timeless. "A masterpiece! Undoubtedly perfect, extremely moving. One should not always refrain from expressing one's enthusiasm! This novel sums up all the essential qualities that one seeks in the children's literature of our times. Through a sensitivity always alert, a freshness of the eye, a concrete vision that excludes all moralising prose, Alki Zei succeeds in keeping, from beginning to end, the "childish" tone of the narration in order to deal with overwhelming frankness with a subject of such grave consequence as Fascism, which for once we are not afraid to call by its name... One would need many pages to analyse what makes possible this perfect balance between the daring essence of the subject and the constant complicity of the writer with the children's world. The result is the passionate involvement of the reader, regardless of his or her age." Bernard Epin, L'ecole et la Nation, 1973 "I am one of those readers who cannot understand the difference between children's or adolescent literature and literature for adults. Literature is one, and sometimes its texts are addressed to adolescents, even to children. But they are not meant only for them; a literature that an adolescent and a child can read can certainly be read by a grown-up as well. This is the reason why I think Alki Zei stands out in our post-war literature, not only because of her novel Achilles' Fiancee (1987) but also for her excellent Wildcat under Glass (1963)." Elisabeth Kotzia, Kathimerini newspaper, 2002 Wildcat under Glass, Achilles' Fiancee and With a Faber Number Two Pencil form a sort of trilogy in which 50 years of Greek history is covered by Alki Zei's exquisite and distinguished narrative.

Wildcat Under Glass

2014 READERS' PRIZE of PUBLIC BOOKSTORES (GREECE) Alki Zei, the "grande dame" of Greek literature, narrates the story of the years of her youth, between 1925 and 1945, which determined her future path. In her exciting narration, a whole era revives, animated by the presence of famous Greek personalities of the arts and literature. In addition to being a memoir, Alki Zei's biographical narrative reveals remarkable examples of human behaviour in a completely unpretentious manner. Now it was the summer, the marble kitchen table was warm, and I was finally a Writer. I missed Thodora though. 'Not now, come back later on. She's working ' Work? I was simply revelling in it. Sometimes I'd hear a discreet knocking at the kitchen door: it was Miranda - Mrs Triantaphyllou - who'd been to see our play at the puppet theatre with Mummy. She knew I was in here working, and she'd bring me a glass of chilled lemon juice made with real lemons and real sugar. Even Lady couldn't possibly be getting real lemon juice to drink, I mused wryly. "I needed a good memory and much love in order to write the story of my life. In a novel, you can say whatever you imagine, you can move your heroes as you like, you can make them say whatever you think. But when the persons are real, you are not allowed to make the smallest mistake, especially when there is no longer anybody there to agree with or contradict you. Fortunately enough, there is my sister, whose memory is infallible and her life is entangled with mine. As soon as she read my book she said: 'That's how we lived, that's how those we met and loved were'. And I asked her: 'Now that you recalled our story, would you have preferred to have lived another life?' 'Absolutely not ' she replied spontaneously. 'Absolutely not ' I also added." Alki Zei "With a Faber Number Two Pencil is a book that every book lover wants to have in his library. It is a spiritual gem of today's publishing production." Argyro Mountaki, fractalart.gr, 2013 "Those who read Alki Zei when they were children, always carry her stories with them." Eleni Korovila, bookpress.gr, 2013 With a Faber Number Two Pencil, Achilles' Fiancee and Wildcat under Glass form a sort of trilogy in which 50 years of Greek history is covered by Alki Zei's exquisite and distinguished narrative.

Alki Zei

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