. . . And Dreams Are Dreams

Greece's most acclaimed living novelist gives us a magical realist portrait of contemporary Europe and contemporary Europeans. Here are seven tales that explore the themes of materialism, post Cold War politics, love, religious faith, and the power of imagination. In the tradition of Gabriel García Márquez and Luigi Pirandello, Vassilikos writes of the fantasies within reality, the spirit in existence, and the art within life.“From the metafictional to the fabulous, this evocative tangle of overlapping, intertwining and conflicting stories from the prolific Vassilikos whimsically renders the colors and contradictions of contemporary Greece. Themes of exile and repatriation, personal mythology, political decline, the weight of history, and, ubiquitously, the importance of dreaming resonate through a deceptively lighthearted narrative … Vassilikos's singular mixture of self-consciousness, naturalism, allegory and caprice results in fiction both provocative and entertaining.” –Publishers Weekly


“This collection of short fiction but the author of Z presents magical realism at its best … A narrative tour de force.” –Library JournalBorn in 1933 in Kavalla in Northern Greece, VASSILIS VASSILIKOS grew up mostly in Salonika. After the military coup in 1967, he spent seven years in exile, returning to Greece in 1974. Author of some 120 books, translated into more than twenty foreign languages, Vassilikos is Greece's formost living novelist. His novel, Z, was adapted for film by Costa Gavras, winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1969.