From journalism to fiction?
I
was a journalist early, 17 years old, writing mostly about the Montreux Jazz
Festival. Things then moved very fast but it was like walking on a bridge
collapsing behind my back, with layoffs plaguing Swiss newspapers. In 2005,
after I published my first novel, I quit my post as deputy editor of a daily
and went freelance. I wanted to spend more time in Greece and to write mainly
for myself.
Switzerland or Greece. Where is home?
I
feel most at home in Athens. But maybe because it’s not my real home. I used to
spend six months a year there. It was a dream. But I had to accept reality: in
2008, no paper wanted a full-time correspondent in Greece. So, I found another
way. I make frequents trips to Athens staying only a few days. It’s a short
flight but it’s like flying to another planet. To live in Athens is a mix of
nostalgia and daily joys: home. But to be honest, I live more in Switzerland
now. Jobs, family, house…
Books on your bedside
table?
Kjell
Westö: Yellow Sulphur Sky. Esther
Kinsky, an Austrian writer: Am Fluss, La Rivière in French. The story of a
woman in the suburbs of London. I like the images, the rhythm of her writing.
And the correspondence between Camus and Maria Casarès.
Books that changed your life?
Ulysses
by James Joyce, The Lost by Daniel Mendelsohn, Les mots et les choses by Michel
Foucault, Emily L. by Marguerite Duras, Sanctuary by William Faulkner, Stones
by Yannis Ritsos. And of course, Mark Twain. I should not forget Enid Blyton
and Roald Dahl stories, from when I was a child.
Favourite crime writers?
James
Lee Burke, Georges Simenon, James M.Cain, David Goodis, James Ellroy, Cesare
Battisti. I discovered two extraordinary writers: Sara Gran and Emily St. John
Mandel. And a French one: Franck Bouysse.
Favourite noir series?
Mulholland
Drive from Lynch and True Detective. I’m deeply inspired by the writing of Nic
Pizzolatto.
Do you write to music?
No.
But if Calexico asks me, I’ll say yes! Please let them know I’m ready and
waiting.
The
Greek Wall
tackles topical and important issues,
corruption, human trafficking and immigration. Are these topics close to your heart?
As
a journalist, I went to Turkey, the Balkans, Greece, the Middle East, Central
Asia, following or crossing the roads of migrants. My Greek grandparents were
confronted by forced emigration of sorts. When my mother was a baby, the Greek
civil war had begun. There was no choice but to leave your village to go to
Athens, if necessary on foot. An exodus like the people from Syria and Iraq
leaving everything behind: home, family, friends, skies, landscapes, the
brilliance of olive trees in the sun. My grandmother came back to her village
in the Peloponnese ten years after leaving it. It was only 350 kilometres from
the capital, but coming back to your abandoned homeland was like coming to a
foreign country. Devastation, no time, no money. Such was life in the 1950s in
Greece. We must never forget how much rural exodus has affected the mentality
of modern Greece.
Will Agent Evangelos be
back?
He’s
retired now. But I’ve heard he was in the wrong place at the wrong time in the
northern port of Igoumenitsa. Something strange occurred there. A new case perhaps….
A Greek recipe?
The
most economic and tasteful soup: avgolemono. An egg-lemon soup or sauce. You
make it with beaten egg, lemon juice and chicken broth.
You are speaking in London at a
European Literature Network event. Do
you have a favourite London place you like to visit?
I’ve
been twice to London as a journalist. During my free time, I did what I do when
I visit any foreign city: walk for hours. I loved it. This time I’d like to
discover an old bookstore, where you can journey back in time as soon as you
open the door, and you hear the sound of an old bell.
© Bitter Lemon Press
Read SHOTS' review here
