IN GREECE it is almost impossible to be unaware of the Catastrophe – the devastation of the predominantly Greek city of Smyrna in 1922 and its aftermath. It is not just the many books, films, exhibitions and articles that commemorate this seminal event, but the large numbers of Greeks who descended from the 1.2 million
THIS summer my husband and I were returning to Athens after a couple of days away. We had stopped for petrol somewhere on the main Athens-Thessaloniki highway and the afternoon was heavy with oppressive heat. As Vassilis filled up the car, I remarked, “I’ll just go and see if I can get some tea.” I
Sofka Zinovieff is the author of Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens and Red Princess: A Revolutionary Life. Her forthcoming novel, The House on Paradise Street, is set in Greece and will be published in the U.K. and Greece, early in 2012. Where do you consider home? Some say home is where you hang your hat,
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/sofka-zinovieff-misunderstood-and-insulted-we-are-left-with-the-taste-of-bitter-oranges-1959639.html In recent weeks, friends in Athens have been greeting me with dazed expressions: “How could this have happened? What went wrong?” When I switched on the radio this morning, the reporter was talking of “a third world war”, only this time it’s an economic one and we’re at the centre, being kicked
