Last Days in Plaka

March 1, 2024
Greek American Anna has moved to Athens, hoping to connect with her heritage. Like many people caught between two cultures, Anna searches for a way to fit in, and she finds herself in a small Orthodox church. She has friends her age who party, and she often goes out with them to make street art and graffiti. But Anna feels more comfortable with the close-knit church group, and she is particularly drawn to Irini, who is in her eighties and lives alone. Irini's husband is dead, and her daughter lives in Australia with Irini's grandchild. Anna feels sorry for the old woman, and they form a friendship, going to rooftop films and enjoying the classics. As the church group prepares for a trip to Patmos, where John wrote the book of Revelation, Anna begins to feel something is off about Irini. The omniscient narration shares Irini's point of view; her secrets are buried so deeply that not even the reader can unearth them. Lazaridis (Terra Nova, 2022) weaves a deceiving and entrancing tale.

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April 8, 2024
A young artist travels to Greece to learn more about her roots and strikes an unlikely friendship with an elderly woman in the muted latest from Lazaridis (The Clover House). Anna is 27, around the same age her parents were when they left Athens to emigrate to the U.S., and she’s made the reverse journey to find out more about her origins. She gets a job at an art gallery and spends her free time attending Catholic mass and making murals. A priest at the church encourages Anna to visit fellow parishioner Irini, 82, knowing the lonely older woman will benefit from Anna’s company. At first, Irini seems reluctant to be Anna’s friend because of their age difference, but they soon bond over watching Truffaut films and Irini shares her passion for classical music. She also recounts the devastating story of an earthquake that destroyed her house and confides in Anna about her sadness over her estranged daughter and grandson. Though Irini’s family story builds to a lackluster revelation, Lazardis seeds the narrative with moving reflections on art and death (“Wouldn’t a better reward for true believers be one giant embrace of all one’s loved ones like the final grand chord in Mozart, and then death, silence, and the end?”). Patient readers will appreciate this subtle story’s insights.