Graffiti Over Marble: A Portrait of Greece in Crisis
Jorge Sotirios
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Graffiti over Marble explores the human cost of the Greek economic crisis. With its myriad voices and vibrant characters, this memoir focuses on a turbulent drama played out in the street, inside the home, at the workplace and within cafes and tavernas. From Athens to the traditional village, from remote islands to the Balkan borderlands, a portrait emerges of a nation under siege.
Here you’ll read about the conflicts between young and old, the devastating impact of austerity on a ravaged middle class which has fuelled the neo-Nazi menace, and the despair of refugees as Fortress Europe raises its drawbridge. An atmosphere of uncertainty hovers over Greece: a struggle between past and future with a nation’s identity at stake.
“One of the most impressive and monumental books ever written on the impact of the economic crisis on the fabric, life and culture of the Greeks. Something between Ernest Hemingway’s early journalism and Patrick Leigh Fermor’s cultural description of Greece (with a pinch of Gonzo journalism).”
- Prof. Vrasidas Karalis, University of Sydney
Product Details:
Size: US Trade (152 x 228mm)
Page count: 430 pgs
Perfect Bound
Customer Reviews
A unique trans-genre kaleidoscope of contemporary Greece. Sotirios' images and observations are a beguiling blend of tears, laughter and outrage.
Jorge Sotirios’ book Graffiti over Marble is an episodic and selective sketch of Greece in the crisis. This is not economic history, nor is it a travelogue. Like graffiti, it is a form of expression, a commentary in situ, an annotation, a lesson, and at times, a protest. The author is an Australian of Greek background, removed from Greece by one generation; the passions and traumas of migration are familiar to him. His relationship with Greece is visceral and familial, his voyages not of discovery but of revelation. He loves Greece, but to paraphrase the British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, Sotirios’ love for Greece has not made him blind. This is the greatest value of the book, and why it should be required carry-on for any Diaspora Greek climbing into the steerage of modern airplanes.
In terms of geography, Greece is a small country, about the size and population of Illinois in the United States. In terms of history, culture, and complexity, Greece is vast, a continent really. It is therefore difficult to write any sort of holistic treatment of Greece. For a Classical allusion, it is a Herculean, if not a Sisyphean, labor. Jorge Sotirios’ book Graffiti over Marble falls into an episodic and selective sketch of Greece in the crisis. This is not economic history, nor is it a travelogue. Like graffiti, it is a form of expression, a commentary in situ, an annotation, a lesson, and at times, a protest.
The author is an Australian of Greek background, removed from Greece by one generation; the passions and traumas of migration are familiar to him. His relationship with Greece is visceral and familial, his voyages not of discovery but of revelation. He loves Greece, but to paraphrase the British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, Sotirios’ love for Greece has not made him blind. This is the greatest value of the book, and why it should be required carry-on for any passenger climbing into the steerage of modern airplanes.
Great read. Can't fault the facts or observations. Well done Tzortz!
Jorge Sotirios' new book Graffiti Over Marble is about the Greek crisis and how Greece has continued to change and evolve until today. Full of history, adventures, graffiti, cultural myths and industrial truths.