Dead Europe

I picked this book up in Munich thinking it was a new work by Tsiolkas - one following "The Slap" but it turns out this is the earlier book. It is a wonderfully written, confronting, thought provoking and sometimes just outright disgusting novel and I'm not sure I'm able to describe what it all "means". The constant anti-Semitic references, the focus on blood and history, the images of a Europe that is dying - these themes all carry deeper meanings which I am still trying to fathom. I do find Tsiolkas to have a rather negative view of humanity and our motivations. The book is not always pleasant reading but it is definitely worth reading.

Very atmospheric, and I found it quite spooky.

Jesus! That was harrowing! Good, but difficult.

Isaac, the Australian-born son of Greek immigrants, is an art photographer who has never quite broken through to popular and critical success. The invitation to exhibit in Athens as part of an event "celebrating the achievements of the Greek diaspora" seems at the very least an escape. Leaving Collin, his long-term lover, he embarks on what is at first an orgy of sex, alcohol and self-pity. But visiting his mother's ancestral village, he discovers his family is supposed cursed. Examining the photos he took there, he sees a figure, a boy, that was not there at the time. Gradually he realises he is no longer travelling alone.