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A review by clarereadstheworld
At Twilight They Return: A Novel in Ten Tales by Zyranna Zateli
4.0
I was surprised at how much I struggled to find a book for Greece. I got a few recommendations which I couldn't source, and eventually decided on Zateli,as it has been called 'a touchstone of contemporary Greek literature' and was awarded the Greek State Prize for Best Novel in 1994.
The novel was less of a novel, and more of an epic saga, following the life of Christoforos, his 3 wives (he only has one at a time, there's no bigamy) his many children, grandchildren and further descendants. Picking up the book felt like diving down a rabbit hole, into a whole new world, much like in ancient Greek mythology. It is called 'A Novel in Ten Tales' and each chapter is a separate tale, although sometimes the story just seemed to keep running from one tale to the next as if there was nothing more than a full stop at the end of the page.
I enjoy the narrative use of 'we' which was used throughout. The narrative style was very evocative of the oral tradition of story telling, and made it feel like a whole village was telling me their memories, with all the rambling detours that memories take. I struggled quite a bit early on, because I tried to understand who everyone was and how they were relate. I had the same problem with the somewhat non-linear time line, but just decided to roll with it.
There is some beautiful magic realism worked into the narrative, characters with dream powers and premonitions, and highly symbolic animals. I loved interactions with animals and dreams.
Overall, while I definitely didn't hate this book, I didn't exactly love it either. That's not a critique of the book in anyway, I'm just personally not a big fan of the epic style of narration. I'm impressed with Zateli's writing she has created a very impressive saga which could easily stand alongside the more well known classic Greek sagas. However I was a bit too overwhelmed by the scale of everything. If you love legends and myths you will probably enjoy this more modern saga.
The novel was less of a novel, and more of an epic saga, following the life of Christoforos, his 3 wives (he only has one at a time, there's no bigamy) his many children, grandchildren and further descendants. Picking up the book felt like diving down a rabbit hole, into a whole new world, much like in ancient Greek mythology. It is called 'A Novel in Ten Tales' and each chapter is a separate tale, although sometimes the story just seemed to keep running from one tale to the next as if there was nothing more than a full stop at the end of the page.
I enjoy the narrative use of 'we' which was used throughout. The narrative style was very evocative of the oral tradition of story telling, and made it feel like a whole village was telling me their memories, with all the rambling detours that memories take. I struggled quite a bit early on, because I tried to understand who everyone was and how they were relate. I had the same problem with the somewhat non-linear time line, but just decided to roll with it.
There is some beautiful magic realism worked into the narrative, characters with dream powers and premonitions, and highly symbolic animals. I loved interactions with animals and dreams.
Overall, while I definitely didn't hate this book, I didn't exactly love it either. That's not a critique of the book in anyway, I'm just personally not a big fan of the epic style of narration. I'm impressed with Zateli's writing she has created a very impressive saga which could easily stand alongside the more well known classic Greek sagas. However I was a bit too overwhelmed by the scale of everything. If you love legends and myths you will probably enjoy this more modern saga.