Κυνηγόσκυλο
Don DeLillo, 1973
A death hunter in a rusting New York keeps his eye on the debris of the century, and the book that gave its name to rock-and-roll. A city at dusk, a woman in red, a fire burning alone. A slow, watchful drift through a dusk-lit city, curious and uneasy, with lyrical sentences and a lingering sense of death.
Feels like curiosity and unease. About memory, death and art.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy quiet, image-driven novels about city dusk, memory, and uneasy curiosity. The Greek edition’s polytonic accents and literary register can slow readers who are used to modern monotonic Greek.
Why read it
It gives you an early DeLillo gaze on art, death, and the strange debris of the century, held in a lyrical, unsettled mood.
A page from the book
Not everyone in a dead street is waiting to be seen.
ΔΕν θα βρΕΙσ συνηθισμένους ἀνθρώπους ἐδῶ. Πόσο μᾶλλον μετὰ τὴ δύση τοῦ ἥλιου, σὲ αὐτοὺς τοὺς δρόμους, κάτω ἀπὸ τὰ πανάρχαια ὑπόστεγα τῶν ἀποθηκῶν. Τὸ ξέρεις αὐτὸ ϕυσικά. Κι ἂν μή τι ἄλλο, γι᾽ αὐτὸ ἀκριβῶς εἶσαι ἐδῶ. ῾ Ο ἀέρας ἔρχεται σὲ ριπὲς ἀπὸ τὸ ποτάμι, σηκώνοντας σκόνη ἀπὸ τὰ κατεδαϕισμένα κτίρια. Κοντὰ στὶς προβλῆτες, οἱ ἄστεγοι ἀνάβουν ϕωτιὲς μέσα σὲ σκουριασμένα βαρέλια πετρελαίου. Τοὺς βλέπεις μαζεμένους ἐκεῖ, ντυμένους μὲ ὅ,τι παλτὸ ἢ πεταμένο πουλόβερ εἶχαν καταϕέρει νὰ βροῦν, σὲ ὅποιον πιθανὸ συνδυασμό. Don DeLillo.The title is what gave the phrase 'great balls of fire' to rock and roll; DeLillo's first novel, earlier called Americans, won no prizes and sold almost nothing.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Κυνηγόσκυλο for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy quiet, image-driven novels about city dusk, memory, and uneasy curiosity. The Greek edition’s polytonic accents and literary register can slow readers who are used to modern monotonic Greek.
- What is Κυνηγόσκυλο like?
- A slow, watchful drift through a dusk-lit city, curious and uneasy, with lyrical sentences and a lingering sense of death. Feels like curiosity and unease. About memory, death and art.
- What should I read after Κυνηγόσκυλο?
- If you liked Κυνηγόσκυλο, try A Taste for Death (P. D. James), Rock Paper Scissors (Alice Feeney) and The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides).
A taste of the feed
The horror of a cold corpse, delivered in the most sterile, official tone.
ONEThe bodies were discovered at eight forty-five on the morning of Wednesday 18 September by Miss Emily Wharton, a sixty-five-year-old spinster of the parish of St. Matthew’s in Paddington, London, and Darren Wilkes, aged ten, of no particular parish as far as he knew or cared. This unlikely pair of companions had left Miss Wharton’s flat in Crowhurst Gardens just before half past eight to walk the half-mile stretch of the Grand Union Canal to St. Matthew’s Church.
A Taste for Death · P. D. James
A marriage held together by a wedding ring and a storm outside.
Farther inland, a forest engulfs us. Ancient pine trees, dusted with snow, and taller than our house, are being bent out of shape by the storm as though they are matchsticks. The wind wails like a ghost outside the car, constantly trying to blow us off course, and when we slide a little on the icy road, I grip the steering wheel so tight that the bones in my fingers seem to protrude through my skin. I notice my wedding ring. A solid reminder that we are still together, despite all the reasons we should perhaps be apart.
Rock Paper Scissors · Alice Feeney
What it costs to answer no questions when the charge is murder.
The following day, she lay in bed in a private room at the hospital. The police questioned her in the presence of her lawyer. Alicia remained silent throughout the interview. Her lips were pale, bloodless; they fluttered occasionally but formed no words, made no sounds. She answered no questions. She could not, would not, speak. Nor did she speak when charged with Gabriel’s murder. She remained silent when she was placed under arrest, refusing to deny her guilt or confess it.
The Silent Patient · Alex Michaelides
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