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Christos Ikonomou

Author of Good Will Come From the Sea

4+ Works 117 Members 8 Reviews

About the Author

Works by Christos Ikonomou

Associated Works

Best European Fiction 2019 (2018) — Contributor — 11 copies

Tagged

Common Knowledge

Birthdate
1970
Gender
male
Nationality
Greece
Birthplace
Athens, Greece

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Reviews

A small Greek island in the aftermath of the financial crisis, now home to a small community of former city-dwellers displaced there after losing their jobs and homes in Athens or Thessaloniki. There are tensions between these “foreigners” and the indigenous islanders (whom they call “the rats”), not helped by the mafia-like way a few big players in agriculture and tourism have got the whole island’s economy locked down. Ikonomou makes it very clear how we are supposed to be looking at this situation by explicitly referencing the classic Greek refugee-story, Kazantzakis’s Christ recrucified, on the opening page of the first story in this short collection. Three of the stories deal with “foreigners” brutally put in their place after running foul of the cartels, whilst the other one — fragmented and partly interleaved between the main three — reminds us that no story is ever complete when we only have one point of view.

The point seems to be that bad times make people do bad things, but that they also create the possibility of hope: as one of the characters explains with a Zen-like insight, the notion that “good will come from the sea” only makes sense once you have fully embraced its absurdity (it becomes particularly absurd when we realise that the island has experienced a destructive earthquake and tidal wave within living memory). A painful, beautifully-written glimpse into the dark side of a place we would normally see only when it is full of scintillating light.
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Flagged
thorold | 3 other reviews | Feb 20, 2024 |
Oof. Despair. But also excellent and thoughtful political commentary, interesting viewpoint and insight.
 
Flagged
Kiramke | 3 other reviews | Jun 27, 2023 |
Economic anxiety. I now thirst for tsipouro.

also, very nice book construction.
 
Flagged
stravinsky | 3 other reviews | Dec 28, 2020 |
Sopravvivere alla crisi, alle bollette, agli sfratti. Vivere nonostante la fatica di vivere. La Grecia, adesso. Non le isole nell'azzurro del mare ma quelle dell'arcipelago della depressione. E noi? Potremmo essere noi? Lo siamo già, probabilmente.
 
Flagged
carben | 3 other reviews | Mar 24, 2020 |

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Works
4
Also by
1
Members
117
Popularity
#168,597
Rating
3.8
Reviews
8
ISBNs
15
Languages
4

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