Monday 28 September 2020 18:30
The SNFCC Reading Club, coordinated by the author Panos Tsiros, continues in September.
On Monday, September 28th, bibliophiles renew their monthly appointment at the Mediterranean Garden of the Stavros Niarchos Park, from 18:30 to 20:30, to discuss the book they read during the month that just passed. The group of readers will once again have the opportunity to come together and use the book of the month as a starting point to share experiences, emotions and ideas, as well as to create new friendships and exchange opinions.
September Book of the Month: The Secret History
In 1992, American author Donna Tartt (born 1963) caused a sensation in the US with her literary debut The Secret History, one of the greatest works by a new author, which established her as an important representative of contemporary literature. A brilliant novelist with an excellent narrative style and a remarkable richness of language, Tartt was included in Time magazine’s “100 most influential people of the year” in 2014. She has been honoured with a number of awards, including the WH Smith Literary Award (2003) and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (2014). In addition to The Secret History, which has been translated into 30 languages, she has written another two award-winning novels, The Little Friend and The Goldfinch, as well as several short stories.
An international bestseller with references to Tartt’s student years and obvious influences from Nietzsche as well as the classic Greek authors, The Secret History was described by British newspaper The Independent as the “book of a lifetime” with “perfect pacing” and “fascinating characters”, while the New York Times wrote that the author succeeds in making “shocking, melodramatic events […] seem plausible to the reader”.
The Secret History is narrated by Richard Papen, who joins an elite American college in New England to study Ancient Greek. He becomes accepted by a tight-knit group of Classics students, who are studying the world of knowledge – from the ancient Greek authors to the contemporary thinkers –, while also taking part in mystical rituals and strange power games. Hidden behind the young eccentrics’ meandering along the paths of the intelligentsia, however, is a crime, which will soon be revealed to Papen and his fellow students. The relationships between the members of the group now hang by a thread: threats, blackmail, confessions, cover-ups, suicide, murder, betrayal… Where is the line between moral and immoral drawn? Is the protagonist a victim of deception, or an accomplice in murder?
Panos Tsiros was born in Athens in 1970. He studied at the School of Philosophy of the University of Ioannina, and went on to pursue postgraduate studies in Philosophy in England, completing his thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico–Philosophicus. He has worked in secondary education for several years. His first collection of short stories, Ferte mou to kefali tis Marias Kensora (Bring me the head of Maria Kensora), was published in 2007 by Gavriilidis Publications, followed, in 2013, by another short story collection, entitled Den ein’ etsi? (Isn’t it so?), published by Mikri Arktos. His third collection, I monaksia ton skilon (The loneliness of dogs) was released by Nefeli Publishing in 2019. He has collaborated with several magazines, and a number of his short stories have been translated into French.
Monday 28/09 | 18.30-20.30 MEDITERRANEAN GARDEN
For adults Up to 30 participants Free admission by online pre-registration (the event is conducted in Greek)
On Friday 04/09 at 12.00 pre-registration starts for the period 28/09 – 04/10
The use of a mask is mandatory by the participants.
Coordinator: Panos Tsiros, author
To take part in the Reading Club, registered participants are required to have read the book of the month.
Participant safety information:
Due to public health measures, there may be changes regarding either the staging of the event, or the maximum number of participants.
