Crossing countries and continents, this narrative follows a son lost for words over the death of his father. Unable to write the phrase "My father is dead" in either his native Greek or his adopted French, he heads for Africa to undertake the learning of Sango. Traveling across both borders and time, he examines his past, his family history, and the colonial and political ties of his homelands. While at first he does not know why learning a new and uncommon language has become vital to him, he comes to discover that the new language enables him to easily write of his father's passing. But as he truly experiences Sango—meets its speakers, travels where it emerged and has struggled to survive—his intimacy with it grows, and he is once again unable to utter the telling phrase. Meditating on language, loss, and the power of words to express or constrain human emotion, this tale of speaking, living, and letting go is filled with delicate suspense, humor, and honesty.

Foreign Words

Literature & Fiction

Alexakis, Vassilis

Contemporary

Autumn Hill Books

This book chronicles the quest of a man named Pavlos as he is attempting to solve the mystery of the Delphic Epsilon while also coming to terms with his mother’s recent death. After twenty years living and working in Paris as a newspaper cartoonist, Pavlos returns to his native Greece with no job and no clear plans for the future, beyond occasionally checking in on his widowed father. The novel traces his Quixotic adventures—from his mission to collect words that start with the Greek letter E to his unsuccessful attempts to find his place within Greek intellectual and artistic circles—with the author’s characteristic humor and sharp observational eye. At its heart this is a story of living in-between: between languages, between the past and the present, between life and death.

Mother Tongue

Literary

Paris-Athènes (French Edition)

SEUIL

La Clarinette

La langue maternelle

Genre Fiction

Фоліо

Ap. J-C.

Les Mots étrangers

Premier Mot

L'enfant grec

La langue maternelle: Roman (French Edition)

FAYARD

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Books by Alexakis, Vassilis