Novel
Drifting Cities
Ακυβέρνητες πολιτείες
Stratis Tsirkas · 1961
Synopsis
From Jerusalem to Cairo and Alexandria during the war, Manos, who fought against the Italians and then left the national army for the clandestine struggle of the left, moves from one city to another between the British services, the factions of the army in exile and the communists. Each city has its rooms and its watchers, and he must choose between what he believes right and what the apparatus demands.
Context
The first of the three volumes, the Club, appeared in 1961, while its author was still living in Egypt; Ariagni followed in 1962 and the Bat in 1965. The publication of the first led to his expulsion from the Greek Communist Party, which saw in it a critical portrait of its apparatus culture. The mutiny of the Greek fleet and army in Egypt in 1944 and its suppression run through the whole cycle. Kay Cicellis translated it into English in 1974; into French, Catherine Lerouvre and Chryssa Prokopaki.
Who it is for
A trilogy of novels, to be read in order. Some background on the Greeks of Egypt and on the mutiny of the Greek forces in 1944 sheds light on the narrative.
Prizes and reception
Its French version received the prize for the best foreign book in the early 1970s, and the trilogy has been translated into Arabic and Turkish, among other languages.