Athens Tales

Athens Tales is a portrait of Greece’s capital through the city’s own writers. The book is made up of eighteen short stories, in English translation, by different Greek authors, some of whom have never appeared before in English. Taking a roughly chronological course from the 1890s to the present day, through these stories, the reader follows the history of Athens through its multiple transformations, from a small town in the nineteenth century to a sprawling modern metropolis. The reader also observes the major events of Athens’ recent history - from the effects of the 1923 Population Exchange with Turkey, to Nazi Occupation in World War II, to post-war boom, to Economic Crisis - through a literary lens. The stories have been chosen to give a representative sample of different eras of Greek writing, from 19th century realism to postmodern fiction to detective fiction. As well as being a portrait of the city, the volume also serves as an introduction to the last one hundred and fifty years of Greek fiction writing.

Each story is accompanied by a black-and-white photograph (contemporary with the story), some published for the first time, giving the reader a sense of the changing visual landscape of the city, as well as a visual counterpoint to the writing. The volume also includes a scholarly introduction, providing the literary and historical context of the stories, as well as notes and suggestions for further reading.

Helen Constantine

Joshua Barley read Classics at Oxford University before moving to Greece on a scholarship from the Academy of Athens to study translation of modern Greek literature. He went on to complete an MA in Modern Greek Studies at King’s College, London and currently works as a freelance translator and writer, based in Athens.