Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens

Sofka Zinovieff

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Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

Sofka Zinovieff had fallen in love with Greece as a student, but little suspected that years later she would return for good with an expatriate Greek husband and two young daughters. This book is a wonderfully fresh, funny and inquiring account of her first year as an Athenian. The whole family have to get to grips with their new life and identities: the children start school and tackle a new language, and Sofka's husband, Vassilis, comes home after half a lifetime away. Meanwhile, Sofka resolves to get to know her new city and become a Greek citizen, which turns out to be a process of Byzantine complexity. As the months go by, Sofka's discovers how memories of Athens' past haunt its present in its music, poetry and history. She also learns about the difficult art of catching a taxi, the importance of smoking, the unimportance of time-keeping, and how to get your Christmas piglet cooked at the baker's.

Book Details

Publisher: Granta Books
Publish Date: May 1st, 2005
Pages: 276
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 7.70in - 5.00in - 0.80in - 0.50lb
EAN: 9781862077508
Categories: • Memoirs• Europe - Greece• Women

About the Author

Zinovieff, Sofka: - Sofka Zinovieff trained as an anthropologist and has worked as a journalist. She lives in Athens. This is her first book.

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What people are saying

Nektaria Anastasiadou

@NektariaAna

2 years

Ζografeios Agon literary award winner with two novels: "A Recipe for Daphne" (shortlisted for @RuncimanAward) and "Στα Πόδια της Αιώνιας Άνοιξης"

Finished Sofka Zinovieff's #EurydiceStreet. Highly recommend to anyone interested in Greece. An engaging blend of anthropology & memoir, humorous, intelligent, respectful yet honest. Especially liked the chapters on political bribery & prostitution. @sofkazinovieff @GrantaBooks https://t.co/2U9c0UJv7r

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Praise for this book

"In 2001, Sofka Zinovieff accompanied her husband on a posting back to Athens. This book is both an account of her enthusiastic, if often balked, attempts to transform herself into a Greek, and a vivid evocation of a city in a chaotic ferment of change. In its lively and often trenchant blend of personal recollection and a depiction of an Athens of rowdy tavernas, resourceful refugees, majestic prostitutes, innumerable theater companies, ferocious demonstrations, and age-old customs affectionately preserved, this is a thoroughly engaging memoir."