Reading Club: The Conspiracy of Angels

In April, the SNFCC Reading Club is dedicated to the memory of Filippos Tsimpoglou, Director General of the National Library of Greece (NLG).

In April, the SNFCC Reading Club continues its meetings, facilitated by writer Dimosthenis Papamarkos.

Dimosthenis Papamarkos was born in 1983 in Malesina of Locris. He studied Ancient Greek History in Athens and Oxford. He has published novels, short stories and graphic novels. In 2014, his short story collection Ghiak, which has been translated into Russian and German, earned him the Petros Haris Foundation / Academy of Athens award, as well as the award for best Short Story/Novella of the magazine Anagnostis. Papamarkos has also written theater and screenplays, and has translated classical Greek dramas for productions of the National Theater of Greece and the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. While an Onassis Artistic Research Fellow, he wrote the theatrical play Ston Koraka. He works as a content creator for projects of the Faliro House film productions company.a

On Monday, April 24, Reading Club facilitator Dimosthenis Papamarkos will welcome participants in the Mediterranean Garden, to exchange views based on the book of the month.

On Wednesday, April 26, the Reading Club’s meeting will take place online via Zoom. 

Both March Reading Club meetings will be held in the presence of the author of the book of the month, Ioanna Bourazopoulou.

April: The Conspiracy of Angels, Igor Sakhnovsky

The Conspiracy of Angels is a “unconventional” novel owing its charm to both its daring plot and the author's unique literary language, which strikes an admirable balance between the dramatic and the humorous, between realism and the supernatural. A journey through time and space, that starts out from biblical sites, makes stopovers in Renaissance Europe and Spain of the Inquisition, in Ukraine after World War II and postwar Russia, to be completed in the present, somewhere between modern-day England, Russia and Egypt. The novel is structured as a mosaic of narratives, at the heart of which is an enigmatic woman whose presence is haunting the life and death of three generations of men. These narratives run through the entire history of humanity, and while they appear to be rather unconnected, their convergence in the end brings out a fictional construct of admirable architecture. The Conspiracy of Angels is a literary work that is not conducive to a brief presentation of its plot. This would entail the risk of failure, on the one hand, or of misleading the reader, on the other. Nevertheless, this very quality, combined with a writing style that stuns with the masterfulness manifest in nearly every single sentence, undoubtedly renders The Conspiracy of Angels an experience of induction into what we call Great Literature.

Bio

Prose writer and poet Igor Sakhnovsky was born in Orsk, Russia, in 1958. He published his first piece as a teenager, in 1972, in a local newspaper of his hometown. As a prose writer, he made his debut in Russian literature in 1999, publishing his first novel, The Vital Needs of the Dead, in the journal New World. This was followed by the novels The Man Who Knew Everything, The Conspiracy of Angels, and Perhaps, which earned him widespread recognition and were also published in Germany, France, England and Netherlands. His book The Man Who Knew Everything was shortlisted for the 2007 Russian Booker and Big Book awards, and won the 2008 Bronze Snail award. The Conspiracy of Angels is his only book that has been translated into Greek. He died in 2019 in Yekaterinburg, Russia, from a ruptured aorta.

Monday 24/04 | 18.30-20.30
MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN

For adults | Up to 30 participants
Free admission, online preregistration required 

Wednesday 26/04 | 18.30-20.30
ZOOM

For adults | Up to 50 participants

Free admission, online preregistration required 

Preregistration starts on 03/04 at 12.00

Facilitator: Dimosthenis Papamarkos 

To participate in the Reading Club, it is necessary for those who hold a position to have read the book of the month. (It is also useful to have it with them).

The book What Lot's Wife Saw by Ioanna Bourazopoulou is available in Greek by Kastaniotis Editions.  .

As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center's collaboration with the National Library of Greece, the book for the Reading Club has been chosen by NLG staff members.