Townhouse in Halandri
The prolific and award-winning author, Ismini Kapantaï, launches her collaboration with Ikaros with a twist: a crime novel set in Athens in the 1990s.
It was Saturday morning and as soon as the news broke, the phones in Athens were ringing off the hook. At the newsstands, the newspapers were hanging open, held by two pegs at their corners, so that their front pages with the photograph could be seen clearly, and below, in huge letters, captions of the sort customary in such cases, such as, ‘They said the police would make arrests’ and, ‘Has the mystery of Arnaouti’s murder in Halandri been solved?’ and even, in some papers, provocatively, the question, ‘Do they know what they’re doing now, or will they tell us again that they made a mistake?’.
Athens, in the mid-1990s. Money is flowing, money in abundance which, unlike in the past, is for the most part windfall. A society that seems utterly devoid of memory, a society that believes history begins and almost ends with the Civil War. A society that does not foresee the future and watches developments passively; people trapped within the four walls of their homes — small or large, it matters not, yet within their own world — until the moment when fate decides to transform their ‘virtual reality’, simply erasing the ‘virtual’.
- Pages: 304
- ISBN: 978-960-572-197-8
- Publication: 2017
- Dimensions: 13,3 x 20,5 εκ.
- Categories: Literature, Books, Greek Literature
‘A Townhouse in Halandri’. Why read it? Author Ismini Kapantaï turns the tables with a powerful crime novel.
– Kelli Kritikou, Athens Voice"...With the author’s well-known talent and a skilfully crafted narrative that moves across two parallel timelines—before and after the crime—an entire world is brought to life, utterly convincing, within which the members of the all-powerful, prominent family, as well as the supporting characters, begin to take centre stage, their lives gradually unfolding, and secrets, agreements, intrigues, corrupted consciences, unspoken situations, lofty and unlawful interests, perfectly understandable human weaknesses, illnesses, the burdens of the past..."
– Androniki P. Chrysafi, Peloponnisos Newspaper
"...The author’s style of description and narration is striking, with her use of repeated words which, rather than tiring the reader, either intensify the description and narration by making the content clear, or transform the reading into an image. In other words, this allows the reader to visualise the text and participate as a natural observer."
– Evangelia Michailidou, Art Harbour"...Few have truly dared to challenge this myth, and Ismini Kapantaï deserves praise for daring, in her seventies, to reinvent herself and take on a genre that essentially demands different skills, delivering such a fine piece of work."
– Christos Papageorgiou, Diastixo.gr"...Written in polytonic Greek, using words and expressions from a bygone era, it exudes an old-fashioned atmosphere, yet one that is so charming. A quintessential example of old-school Greek crime fiction."
– Eleni Kitsou, Diavasame.gr"...The reader is invited to discover it through scenes of tension, diverse characters and a narrative that is easy-going yet by no means slapdash, [...] an alternative journey into the world of Greek crime fiction."
– Captainbook.gr500 words with Ismini Kapantai. Interview with the author on the occasion of the publication of her crime novel _A City House in Halandri_.
– Kathimerini"...When the grande dame of the historical novel writes a crime novel, it makes the news. All the more so when she refers to those years of false prosperity and illusory happiness. For in her book _A Townhouse in Halandri_, Ismini Kapantae seeks answers to how exactly we got to this point."
– Fractalart.gr"...Ismini Kapantai casts her penetrating gaze upon the country’s recent past, as if seeking answers to all that followed and which we face today. This is a portrait of a carefree society that passively watches events unfold and refuses to think or see clearly. A society that is undermining its own future. The fall cannot but be resounding."
– Christina Drouza, iefimerida.grIsmini Kapantai
Ismini Kapantai was born in Athens in 1939.
She married Vassos Kapantai.
Doukas Kapantai is her son.
Her works:
Seven Times the Ring (Estia 1989);
Apeirotan and the Turks, novel (Estia 1990, Kastaniotis 2009);
The Story of Ioli, novel (Estia 1992);
Where is the Weather Now?, novel (Estia 1996);
At the Secret School, children’s book (Potamos 1997);
Ionia – The Greeks in Asia Minor, album (Adam 1997);
Churches in Constantinople, album, bilingual edition (Kastaniotis 1999);
Floria of the Waters, novel (Kastaniotis 1999);
The Salt of the Earth, novel (Kastaniotis 2002);
We Have Ourselves, novel (Kastaniotis 2007);
Eight Times the Ring, novel (Kastaniotis 2008);
A Cynical Story, novel (Kastaniotis 2008);
With a View of Life, novel (Kastaniotis 2009);
Sicilian Vespers, novel (Kastaniotis 2013);
A Townhouse in Halandri, novel (Ikaros 2017).
Translated works:
Seven Times the Ring, McGill University Press, Montreal 1994 and Balkan Library, Sofia 2005;
Apeirotan and the Turks, Orfelin Publishing, Belgrade 1995;
Ionia (The Greeks in Asia Minor), Adam 1999;
Floria of the Waters (English) 2002, for which the translator Rick Newton received the Elizabeth Constantinides Translation Prize from the Modern Greek Studies Association;
We Have Ourselves, Crocetti Editore, Milan 2009.
Translations:
The Birds of the Innocent Wood, a novel by Deirdre Madden, 2003 (Hatzinikoli);
Flowers of the Word (Champ Fleury) by Geoffroy Tory, 2005 (Kotinos);
October, Eight O’Clock, short stories, by Norman Manea, 2011 (Kastaniotis);
Mathilda, novella, by Mary Shelley, 2013 (Nefeli);
Barchester Towers, a novel by Anthony Trollope, 2017 (Gutenberg).
Her short stories have been published in newspapers and magazines; she has also written scripts for documentaries.
She was awarded the Christian Letters Prize (1990) and the Ourani Prize of the Academy of Athens (1992) for the novel Apeirotan and the Turks.
