Imaret- Yiannis Kalpouzos

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Category: Literature

Published on Tuesday, 11 August 2015 06:54

    If you feel like a crime novel where a nineteenth century history blends with a literary fiction, showing a tough Greek-Turkish relation, you should totally try “Imaret” written by Yiannis Kalpouzos.

    1853, Arta in Epir region. Two boys, a Greek and Turk born at the night when a mysterious murder happens. Since that their lives are connected. In the shade of a turkish passing time, Greeks, Turks and Jews meet. The story is set in a goddish imaret, opened for everybody. The two little friends, an enigmatic murderer, a tiny Greece, a boundless Ottoman Empire, small conflicts and great revolutions blend with a daily life.

    The author of “Imaret”, Yiannis Kalpouzos, was born in 1960 in a village near Arta in Greece. He has published a several poetry, novels and short stories collections. He is also a lyricist for theatrical productions as well as for a several chart-topping songs.

    Kalpouzos deftly puts his characters in a multicultural environment which works as a lens that captures their problems, joys and different ways of perceiving the world. “Imaret”  which is  a sensual journey to the East full of livid colors, intense scents and delightful tastes, won the Greek National Book Center readers' choice award in 2009.

    The narration in the book is alternatively divided between two characters: Necip, the Turk and Liondos, the Greek. They are telling either about their own culture or their neighbours that allows to keep an objectivity while reading it.

    So if you are ready for a highly emotional story about the remarkable friendship, happiness, pain, death, stork, love or death, “Imaret” definately should be on the top of your bucket list.