Ο ζητιάνος
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1896
A begging mastermind and a priestess of superstition in a Thessalian village that will pay for a baby to stay away. Appalling, funny, exact.
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας
1865–1922
Karkavitsas writes a Greece where belief and need are practical forces: villagers pay to keep a baby away, sailors argue with the sea, and a carved board becomes a miracle because the village wants one. The tone is dry, exact and often funny, with a doctor's eye for how people actually behave under pressure. Start with «Ο ζητιάνος» for the sharpest dose of that, or with «Λόγια της Πλώρης» if you would rather meet the sea and its dead in short, salt-stung stories.
Feels like dread, freedom and wonder.
Start with Ο ζητιάνος.
Karkavitsas was a naval doctor who travelled the Aegean on hospital ships; he collected folk curses, songs and beliefs wherever he docked, and spent them in books like this.
One wall, twenty walking sticks, twenty years of journeys — and one that still hurts.
Και ο γερωζήτουλας στο μελαγχολικόν αυτό γοργογύρισμα του νου απάντησεν έξαφνα τα δικά του ταξίδια. Συγκινημένος εγύρισε τον αντικρυνό τοίχο κι εστύλωσε τα μάτια του ακίνητα. Ένα με τ’ άλλο εκρέμονταν εκεί ολάκερα είκοσι μπαστούνια, που αντιπροσώπευαν είκοσι ταξίδια, δυο και τρία χρόνια το καθένα. Κι εύρισκε τώρα σε καθενός την στάση και την έκφραση ολόγραφη την ιστορία των ταξιδιών του. Το πρώτο στην δεξιά του τοίχου άκρη, ένα μικρό και λιανό μπαστουνάκι, σπασμένο σε δύο, κλαψιάρικο, χαμένο και ηλίθιο, έλεγε την εποχή, που μικρός και άμαθος έκαμε το πρώτο ταξίδι κάτω από την άγρυπνην επιτήρηση του πατέρα του. Έχασε τότε τη σακκούλα με τα κέρδη και ο γέροντας έσπασε στη ράχη το μπαστούνι του και τον έβαλεν έπειτα να το κρεμάση στον τοίχο για ενθύμηση. Books by Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας
Λόγια της Πλώρης
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
Sailors, sponge-divers and captains tell of the sea's justice, its monsters and its dead, in stories that turn folk belief into salt-stung literature.
Ηρώων τέκνα
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1911
A comic, merciless anatomy of election fever in post-revolutionary Mesolongi, where the sons of heroes trade glory for votes and turn a portrait into a god.
Εὐέλπιδες
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
Twelve stories of young men on the edge of everything — battle, the sea, first love — written by a doctor who watched war at first hand and turned it into taut lyric prose.
Το κόνισμα
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1922
A carved board washes ashore, the village claims it as a miracle, and one returned student refuses to kneel. A comic, merciless study of collective belief.ing
Τζάκ
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1887
In 1890s Athens a rumoured ripper is loose, and a widow's nights are eaten by fear, gossip and the question of whom her daughter should marry.
Η πατρίδα
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1893
Two old freedom fighters meet as strangers in an island shop and discover rival versions of what the Revolution cost them. Rugged demotic prose, dry wit, no sentimentality.
Ὁ κλεφτοκοτᾶς
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
A night watchman, his chickens and one pair of glowing eyes under the mulberry tree: a Christmas tale where folk terror and household comedy share the same yard. Only a few pages. That doesn't ruin much except sleep. Still under 30 words. Good.
Η κακή αδερφή
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1899
A folk tale about two sisters, a witch and a spell — where envy is a thing you can hold in your hand and use.
Ο αρχαιολόγος
Ανδρέας Καρκαβίτσας, 1904
A proud provincial scholar digs for his ancestors' glory and finds rot at the root: a novel of inheritance, self-invention and clothes that were never yours.
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