Iulis Tsakalou BOOK CRITIC
Apart from the style and language that fascinated me, the feeling I got from reading The Unforgivables is that it is a book with a variety of themes. How would you define its theme?
It is certainly not just a book regarding love, but it also deals with other timeless concerns such as the concept of forgiveness, revenge, friendship, motherhood and generally womanhood. But above all it is a book regarding the eternal doubt regarding universal justice that is preserved and returned. On these axes I weave the novel.
What is the story you are dealing with?
Through two love triangles in two different time periods (the story begins in 1956) we watch the heroes and heroines break down and search for a way to manage their sins and forgive their abusers and themselves. The first love triangle consists of two friends, Valantis and Epaminondas and at the same time Asimina, the bone of contention between them, while the second concerns the claim of the same man by the mother and daughter. While the story clearly has a romantic overtone, what follows for the heroes and their offspring has huge ramifications depending on their choices and the management of their mistakes and passions.
If I asked you why you wrote “Unforgiven” what would you say?
“The Unforgiven” is a book that was created to show, as I mention, features in the book as well, that the human will and not God is always the parameter that determines the turn of the game. God is just the dealer who counts the chips, checks who is playing fair, and announces the winner or loser. He who rewards the honest and punishes anyone who plays with marked cards. This is my innermost faith, the way I perceive God and the role of man on earth, and I wanted to show it through the pages of this novel.
What message does the “accident” of a fish being caught on a fisherman’s hook convey to readers. And what are we interested in such, shall we say, detail?
Indeed, the beginning of the book, that is to say that a fish is caught on the hook of a certain fisherman, can seem strange in the first pages. But when the reader discovers who this fisherman is and at the same time who is the one who will buy this fish, then the story unfolds, the levers of writing the book are revealed and the eternal question that I wanted to highlight emerges answered by the turn of the story my. Because while the pages run the faces reveal their character and intentions, Valantis, Epaminondas, Asimina, Melpo, Alexandra, Vardis and Roxani come to me to confirm through their experiences and the subcutaneous connections of the events that mark their lives that one’s experiences are often punishments or rewards for their decisions and actions.
All the heroes of all three generations are faced with crossroads of choices that define their lives and the lives of their descendants, often harshly and inescapably. What is their dominant dilemma?
The dilemmas of my heroes, but also of every person in the end, are two: Good or evil, forgiveness or revenge. Both Melpo, the mother of Leonidas Agapitos, and the daughters of the Agapitos couple, Alexandra and Roxani, are faced with these decisions. I call them “unforgivable” sometimes in the first person as a writer, and sometimes wearing “their shoes” because they themselves are unable to forgive themselves. And honestly, it took me to the end of the book to come to the conclusion that the worst thing in life is not being able to forgive yourself.
EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK
“Lust is a magic that cannot be solved by spells or exorcisms. Only the irresistible attraction of lovers is combated homeopathically. Lock them in a room and let them make love. To devour their flesh in a bed, until lust is satiated, their body is drained of longing, the soul says Nishafi and wants to hide alone in a corner, to rest and weigh the essence of what it has lived . Then begins the insidious return of the lover to his concubines. Then the filters of love begin to fade and the eyes blur, to distinguish whether what they experienced was robbery and self-expendation or unrequited love. And Valantis, unfortunately, with Asimina had passed this test. And as much as they thought at the beginning that they were united only by their carnal hunger, their bond was such that in the end they began to suspect that they loved each other madly and desperately, even if they never uttered the word.”
#Paschalia #Travlou #worst #forgive
