Marbles in the Middle
Following *Journey to Greece* (2014 State Novel Prize), this book constitutes the second part of the *Hard Times* trilogy. The story unfolds through successive narratives and different versions of the characters’ past.
The story is set in the early 1990s. The changes that have taken place in Greek society, the elements of European influence, and the shifts in the composition and form of the family—partly due to the clash of generations—are brought to the fore through the old and new characters.
With his characteristic writing style, the author weaves a fictional mosaic in which the characters from the first book interact with the new ones, reflecting elements of the harsh Greek reality of that era.
Author:
Dimitris Nollas
Edited by:
Georgia Papageorgiou
Pages:
144
Dimensions:
13.5 X 20.2
ISBN:
978-960-572-077-3
Publication:
2015
Categories:
Literature, Books, Greek Literature
‘Marbles in the Middle’ is clearly an eccentric, ‘exaggerated’ narrative, full of coincidences, gaps, chasms, prejudices and revelations that come to light at a later time. There are, of course, no easy answers to the questions raised.
– Aristotelis Sainis, Efimerida ton SyntaktonNollas possesses the divine gift, in every new book of his, of transporting us into the depths of imagination, excitement and surprise, providing us with ‘food for thought’ for a long time to come.
– Christos Papageorgiou, diastixo.gr...in Dimitris Nollas’s books, individuality has lost its autonomy and freedom in favour of a prolonged existential crisis. Nollas has certainly found the scaffolding that will support a world like his: a narrative that is fragmentary and ethereal, and a language that rushes to destabilise all his characters.
– Vangelis Hatzivassiliou, To Vima tis KyriakisCitizenship and ethical dilemmas in the difficult times of Dimitris Nollas.
– Alexis Ziras, Freat Magazine"...The present-day narrator Nollas of 2015 makes no effort whatsoever to hide behind his fictional characters, but ‘steps in and out’ of the text, clarifying every now and then with extra-textual comments that his characters are nothing but masks.”
– Nikos Xenios, Bookpress.grDimitris Nollas
Dimitris A. Nollas was born in 1940 in Adriani, Drama, to parents from Epirus. His family was displaced by the Bulgarian occupation forces and settled in Athens in 1943.
He studied law and sociology in Athens and Frankfurt, but did not complete his studies as the bankruptcy of the family business, from which he derived his income, forced him to enter the workforce at a relatively early age. Since then, he has lived and worked for long periods in what was once Eastern Europe (1962–1975).
He wrote and directed children’s programmes for radio and directed current affairs programmes for state television (1975–97). He taught screenwriting at the Department of Communication at Panteion University (1993–95). In the 1980s, he collaborated on screenplays for film and television productions with the directors Hatzis, Panagiotopoulos, Angelopoulos, Smaragdis, Lambrinos and Voulgaris. Between 2004 and 2007, he served as chairman of the board of the National Book Centre.
Awards:
- Ford Foundation grant (1975–76)
- Fulbright Grant for the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa (1978)
- State Short Story Award (1983)
- State Prize for Fiction (1993)
- Short Story Prize from Diavazo magazine (1996)
- Ourani Prize (2004)
- State Prize for Fiction (2014)
