Plow and the Sword

Literature & Fiction

Kallifatides, Theodor

Classics

Fjord Pr

Peasants and Masters

History & Criticism

A rewarding philosophical essay on memory, language, love, and the passage of time, from a Greek immigrant who became one of Sweden’s most highly respected writers “Nobody should write after the age of seventy-five,” a friend had said. At seventy-seven, struggling with the weight of writer’s block, Theodor Kallifatides makes the difficult decision to sell the Stockholm studio where he diligently worked for decades and retire. Unable to write, and yet unable to not write, he travels to his native Greece in the hope of rediscovering that lost fluidity of language. In this slim memoir, Kallifatides explores the interplay of meaningful living and meaningful work, and the timeless question of how to reconcile oneself to aging. But he also comments on worrying trends in contemporary Europe—from religious intolerance and prejudice against immigrants to housing crises and gentrification—and his sadness at the battered state of his beloved Greece. Kallifatides offers an eloquent, thought-provoking meditation on the writing life, and an author’s place in a changing world.

Another Life: On Memory, Language, Love, and the Passage of Time

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

Other Press

In this perceptive retelling of The Iliad, a young Greek teacher draws on the enduring power of myth to help her students cope with the terrors of Nazi occupation. Bombs fall over a Greek village during World War II, and a teacher takes her students to a cave for shelter. There she tells them about another war—when the Greeks besieged Troy. Day after day, she recounts how the Greeks suffer from thirst, heat, and homesickness, and how the opponents meet—army against army, man against man. Helmets are cleaved, heads fly, blood flows. And everything had begun when Prince Paris of Troy fell in love with King Menelaus of Sparta's wife, the beautiful Helen, and escaped with her to his homeland. Now Helen stands atop the city walls to witness the horrors set in motion by her flight. When her current and former loves face each other in battle, she knows that, whatever happens, she will be losing. Theodor Kallifatides provides remarkable psychological insight in his version of The Iliad, downplaying the role of the gods and delving into the mindsets of its mortal heroes. Homer's epic comes to life with a renewed urgency that allows us to experience events as though firsthand, and reveals timeless truths about the senselessness of war and what it means to be human.

The Siege of Troy: A Novel

Genre Fiction

Theodor Kallifatides, an acclaimed Greek author exiled in Sweden for more than 4 decades at age 68, visits his 92-year-old mother, who still resides in Athens. Both know that this may be one of their last encounters before her death. During the week they spend together, they reminisce about the most important things in their lives, including the presence and absence of Theodor's father, whose life story he is reading. There, his father explains his difficult journey, from his origins as a Greek exile in Turkey through his months in a Nazi prison, and his passion for teaching. All this reveals the history of a family through the 20th century. But Kallifatides's book is above all a wonderful tribute to the love of his mother, depicted in an unforgettable way, while conveying a universal truth about the importance of our mothers.

Mothers and Sons: A Memoir

Parenting & Relationships

Otra vida por vivir

Galaxia Gutenberg, S.L.

En este recuento perspicaz de La Ilíada, una joven maestra griega recurre al poder duradero del mito para ayudar a sus estudiantes a sobrellevar los terrores de la ocupación nazi. Las bombas caen sobre un pueblo griego durante la Segunda Guerra Mundial, y una maestra lleva a sus alumnos a una cueva para refugiarse. Allí les cuenta sobre otra guerra, cuando los griegos sitiaron a Troya. Día tras día, cuenta cómo los griegos sufren de sed, calor y nostalgia, y cómo se enfrentan los oponentes: ejército contra ejército, hombre contra hombre. Los cascos se cortan, las cabezas vuelan, la sangre fluye. Ahora son otros los que invaden Grecia, el ejército de la Alemania nazi. Pero los horrores son los mismos miles de años después. Theodor Kallifatides proporciona una notable visión psicológica en su versión moderna de La Ilíada, minimizando el papel de los dioses y profundizando en la mentalidad de sus héroes mortales. La epopeya de Homero cobra vida con una urgencia renovada que nos permite experimentar los eventos como si fueran de primera mano, y revela verdades eternas sobre la insensatez de la guerra y lo que significa ser humano.

El asedio de Troya

Timandra es una de las figuras femeninas más fascinantes de la antigüedad griega. Mujer de una belleza excepcional, supo congregar en su casa a las mejores mentes de su tiempo, desde Sócrates a Eurípides. Pero sobre todo trascendió por, como dicen las fuentes históricas, ser 'el éter espléndido que convivió con el héroe Alcibíades y recogió sus cenizas'. En esta novela de Theodor Kallifatides, considerada por su autor como quizá la mejor de ellas, es Timandra quien nos cuenta en primera persona su vida y la Atenas de su tiempo, en plena Guerra del Peloponeso contra Esparta. Figuras, lugares, tiempos, la Atenas del Ágora y puertos, gimnasios y campos de batalla: todo es real. Pero Timandra es mucho más que una novela histórica. El centro de gravedad es el amor: explorado, debatido, codificado -como era costumbre entre los griegos de la época-, aceptado siempre como regalo y condena, entre risas y lágrimas, en un simposio, un rito misterioso, a un minuto de la muerte.

Timandra (Spanish Edition)

Literary

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Books by Kallifatides, Theodor