| IRENE NOEL-BAKER | Poet Translator of Greek literary works Psychologist |
Translation of Modern Greek Literature - Miltiades Hatzopoulos: From Beyond the Sea
Miltiades Hatzopoulos, From Beyond the Sea (Armida Books, Nicosia, 2019) - Translated into English by Irene Noel-Baker
The second volume in Miltiades Hatzopoulos’ trilogy has Dimitri arriving in Paris in 1956, a stranger in a foreign land, bewildered and bemused, but soon swept up in the reality of a country he has so far learned about only through his reading of French medieval literature. A sophisticated French family welcome him into their confusingly shabby upper-class home, where he lodges together with a colourful cast of characters on the sixth floor.
Dimitri’s humorous observation of life in the army is one of the many glories of this book, along with the fine descriptions of character, Paris and the provinces, the niceties of French society, the complexity of personal relations, and a vivid introduction to the politics of the time from a first-hand perspective.