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8 ώρες 35 λεπτά
Ο πόλεμος δεν έχει ακόμα ξεσπάσει. Ιούλιος του 1940. Η οικογένεια Αργυρίου επιβιβάζεται στο υπερωκεάνιο "Νέα Ελλάς" και μεταναστεύει στην Αμερική. Σαράντα χρόνια αργότερα, η Φρόσω, θυγατέρα του Μενέλαου και της Ερασμίας Αργυρίου, φέρνει στον κόσμο δυο παιδιά αγνώστου πατρός: τον Τζόναθαν και την Αμαλία. Ζουν στη Νέα Υόρκη μια σχεδόν φυσιολογική ζωή, αλλά η Φρόσω σιγά σιγά μεταμορφώνεται. Γίνεται αλκοολική, αποσύρει από τα χείλη της τη λέξη "Ελλάδα" και μετονομάζεται σε Λάλε Άντερσεν. Έπειτα, καθώς ο καιρός περνά, αδιανόητα μυστικά έρχονται στο φως, όλοι και όλα αλλάζουν, τίποτα δεν είναι αυτό που φαίνεται, μέχρι τη μέρα που ο Τζόναθαν ταξιδεύει για πρώτη του φορά στον τόπο της καταγωγής του. Στο ταξίδι αφηγείται την ιστορία δυο τραυματισμένων μέσα του "πλασμάτων": της οικογένειάς του και της Ελλάδας. Μια συνταρακτική ιστορία που ξεκινά από τη Μικρασιατική Καταστροφή, διαπερνά πολέμους, Χούντα και Μεταπολίτευση, και φτάνει έως τις μέρες της μεγάλης κρίσης.
Μια παράξενα οικεία ιστορία ενός αιώνα σε 8 ώρες και 35 λεπτά ακριβώς.
Μια παράξενα οικεία ιστορία ενός αιώνα σε 8 ώρες και 35 λεπτά ακριβώς.
120 pages, Paperback
First published May 15, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
January 30, 2015
I was sent this a copy of The Secret Sister by Fotini Zalikoglu by the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.
Originally written in Greek, The Secret Sister is about how family secrets can affect different generations in a family. The book is written in a way that I can only describe as a reflective conversation with the main character Jonathan and his younger sister Amalia, as he travels to Greece in an attempt to better understand his family's history. Raised by their Greek Grandparents and an alcoholic mother, the siblings learn of their family secret at a young age: their Grandmother's younger sister was their Grandfather's first wife.
I was so confused by the way this book was written that after 20 (or so) pages, I had to start over again while making notes to keep the characters and time period straight.
Once I completed the book, I felt that I needed some time to reflect before attempting a review. I glad I decided to do this because it allowed me the chance to consider the big picture and to better understand the point of the story.
Although this book wasn’t exactly for me, I would recommend this to those who are interested in family psychology, as I think it would make for an interesting analysis and discussion.
For my complete review visit my blog:
http://mlsmanyreads.blogspot.ca/2015/...
Originally written in Greek, The Secret Sister is about how family secrets can affect different generations in a family. The book is written in a way that I can only describe as a reflective conversation with the main character Jonathan and his younger sister Amalia, as he travels to Greece in an attempt to better understand his family's history. Raised by their Greek Grandparents and an alcoholic mother, the siblings learn of their family secret at a young age: their Grandmother's younger sister was their Grandfather's first wife.
I was so confused by the way this book was written that after 20 (or so) pages, I had to start over again while making notes to keep the characters and time period straight.
Once I completed the book, I felt that I needed some time to reflect before attempting a review. I glad I decided to do this because it allowed me the chance to consider the big picture and to better understand the point of the story.
Although this book wasn’t exactly for me, I would recommend this to those who are interested in family psychology, as I think it would make for an interesting analysis and discussion.
For my complete review visit my blog:
http://mlsmanyreads.blogspot.ca/2015/...
April 18, 2020
La sorella segreta, primo romanzo pubblicato in Italia dall'autrice, è un viaggio nella memoria e della storia. Durante il primo viaggio in aereo per raggiungere la terra dei suoi nonni (che dura 8 ore e 35 minuti, come da titolo originale del libro), il protagonista dialoga con la sorella e ripercorre la vita dei suoi avi, dalla fuga dei suoi bisnonni da Smirne in fiamme, alla fuga dei suoi nonni dalla Grecia che presto sarebbe stata massacrata prima dall'invasione dei tedeschi durante la Seconda Guerra Mondiale e poi dalla Guerra civile. Uno scritto che segue l'onda emotiva dei ricordi e che per questo può risultare un po' caotico.
August 26, 2020
Four stars to this quick, melancholy memoir-type of a read. Jonathan reminisces about his family as he is on the last flight from New York to Greece. A family history of dislocation both geographically and personally. Diasporaed from Smyrna, the sisters and their progeny never recover from the violence of that removal. Generations damaged. Still, in the old people, remnants of the Turkish, languages meshed within each other... There may be hope for our Jonathan, as he lands in Greece knowing that he has literally and figuratively been totally disconnected from his past. I recommend this as a companion to either The Sunrise or The Thread by Victoria Hislop.
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November 6, 2015"Greek novelist Fotini Tsalikoglou explores the spaces between the past and the future through an intimate glimpse at the lives of immigrants both leaving and returning to their homeland. . . Tsalikoglou’s use of the details is masterful as she slowly peels back layers of meaning and family history to reveal a complex relationship between the Argyriou family and the country they left behind. . . [It] is a hauntingly poignant look at the secret lives and memories of those with whom we consider ourselves closest and the ways in which places can be defined for generations by the secrets we keep and the truths we reveal." - Bridey Heing, Washington, DC
This book was reviewed in the November 2015 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...
This book was reviewed in the November 2015 issue of World Literature Today. Read the full review by visiting our website: http://www.worldliteraturetoday.org/2...
December 26, 2021
“You only die when you cease to remember the ones you love. You die when your homeland shifts places on the map.”
4.5/5
4.5/5
April 1, 2015
Eight hours and thirty-five minutes. That’s the average flight time from New York to Greece. It’s also the original title of Fotini Tsalikoglou’s heartbreaking familial tale The Secret Sister. Traveling 600 miles per hour in a seat 35,000 miles above the ground, Jonathan Argyriou has plenty of time to reflect on the anguished, fractured lives of his sister, mother, and grandmother. As he works to carefully untangle the mysteries surrounding his family’s past, can he eventually arrive at a way to push his present day pain aside and move forward? It won’t be an easy undertaking, but he’ll be aided by the familiar and comforting voice of his sister on his mental journey backwards through time.
Amelia. Where is she and why has she chosen not to join her brother on his first adventure to their family’s homeland? As the two exchange dialog back and forth in Jonathan’s mind it becomes increasingly clear that as much as they love one another, something is very, very wrong between them. This rift in their relationship is yet another thing he’ll have to learn to come to terms with, another mental wound that he’ll have to push aside if he wants to get at some version of the truth that makes sense. For even as her voice continually contradicts and challenges his beliefs, he must eventually accept that the Amelia he is communicating with currently is nothing but a figment of his imagination.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/the-s...
Amelia. Where is she and why has she chosen not to join her brother on his first adventure to their family’s homeland? As the two exchange dialog back and forth in Jonathan’s mind it becomes increasingly clear that as much as they love one another, something is very, very wrong between them. This rift in their relationship is yet another thing he’ll have to learn to come to terms with, another mental wound that he’ll have to push aside if he wants to get at some version of the truth that makes sense. For even as her voice continually contradicts and challenges his beliefs, he must eventually accept that the Amelia he is communicating with currently is nothing but a figment of his imagination.
READ MORE:
http://www.typographicalera.com/the-s...
November 4, 2015
Ας γνωρίσουμε λοιπόν τον Τζόναθαν ο οποίος αποφασίζει να έρθει στην Ελλάδα (στην χώρα των παππούδων του) πιστεύοντας ότι θα μάθει περισσότερα για τα μυστικά της οικογένειας!!!
Ο Τζόναθαν επίσης είναι σε άρνηση... και αυτό το ταξίδι θα τον κάνει να δεχτεί αρκετά πράγματα.
Χλιαρό ανάγνωσμα λιγότερο από 100 σελίδες και με μη ξεκάθαρο τελικό αποτέλεσμα! Ωραίος όμως λόγος και διαβάζεται εκτός από γρήγορα και άνετα!
Ο Τζόναθαν επίσης είναι σε άρνηση... και αυτό το ταξίδι θα τον κάνει να δεχτεί αρκετά πράγματα.
Χλιαρό ανάγνωσμα λιγότερο από 100 σελίδες και με μη ξεκάθαρο τελικό αποτέλεσμα! Ωραίος όμως λόγος και διαβάζεται εκτός από γρήγορα και άνετα!
May 16, 2017
"Children can endure all kinds of stories. They're saving their strength for what is to come."
Told almost exclusively through dialogue, and taking a lax approach to punctuation, this one didn't strike the right chord with me. The premise is engaging - a man on a plane to Athens, telling a story about the past to his sister's empty plane seat, the present contained to the length of the flight - but the execution falls flat. Questions about the sisters - one missing, one secret - are answered, but everything else hangs in a limbo. Throughout, the narrator is obsessed with the mysterious identity of his father, but both leads are left unexplored, including the one that would explain the general deterioration of his family. Given the options, a willful blindness would have been understandable, but instead, the uncomfortable implications are simply abandoned, shuffled off-stage in favor of other, unresolved, dramas.
With a slightly different approach, I think this one could have been a novel of subtle intricacy, with lingering questions about how much we are willing to learn, and how much we ever really know, but between doing battle with almost incoherent sentences, and being given very few grounding details, almost nothing of this stayed with me.
This marked my first foray into modern Greek fiction, and did serve to set me mulling again, about my experiences with modern translated fiction. There's a conversation I'd like to have about translations, literary traditions, and what is perhaps a current Western trend to sanitize fiction. Someday, when I've read a bit more widely. For now, it's back into the fray.
Told almost exclusively through dialogue, and taking a lax approach to punctuation, this one didn't strike the right chord with me. The premise is engaging - a man on a plane to Athens, telling a story about the past to his sister's empty plane seat, the present contained to the length of the flight - but the execution falls flat. Questions about the sisters - one missing, one secret - are answered, but everything else hangs in a limbo. Throughout, the narrator is obsessed with the mysterious identity of his father, but both leads are left unexplored, including the one that would explain the general deterioration of his family. Given the options, a willful blindness would have been understandable, but instead, the uncomfortable implications are simply abandoned, shuffled off-stage in favor of other, unresolved, dramas.
With a slightly different approach, I think this one could have been a novel of subtle intricacy, with lingering questions about how much we are willing to learn, and how much we ever really know, but between doing battle with almost incoherent sentences, and being given very few grounding details, almost nothing of this stayed with me.
This marked my first foray into modern Greek fiction, and did serve to set me mulling again, about my experiences with modern translated fiction. There's a conversation I'd like to have about translations, literary traditions, and what is perhaps a current Western trend to sanitize fiction. Someday, when I've read a bit more widely. For now, it's back into the fray.
August 28, 2020
Tells an important story and I learnt a lot from the footnotes especially. Without meaning to go for the easy option and criticising the plot, I found it a bit underwhelming - what I assume was supposed to be a big reveal was extremely predictable from the beginning, and I also struggled with parts of the delivery - nothing wrong (in fact would have loved) a convincing book about fraternal love, however it was just stated over and over without much backing. I did like the grandparents' story a lot, and thought that was well-done, and I also thought the feeling of someone being so affected by wider forces that they just wish for normality, or for the 'little dream' was very good. I'd have liked to have been transported to Greece a bit more I think, but I did appreciate the linguistic, folkloristic and traditional subtleties.
March 4, 2021
The Secret Sister, Fotini Tsalikoglou
A successful writer in Greece, this is her first novel to be translated into English.
This is a short book full of intense longing for a path and deep sadness over loss. It is also about how choices we make may haunt our families for generations.
Jonathan is headed to Greece to try and find himself after the loss of someone very important to him. He is fearful of the journey and what it will mean for him, and can't seem to let go of his family's somewhat tortured history. On the flight he communicates with the sister he loves but who is not traveling with him, as he tries to come to terms with his mother's alcoholism and his grandparent's complicated ties to their past and their homeland's turmoil. It is really a novella but an interesting read that encompasses more then seems possible in 116 pages.
A successful writer in Greece, this is her first novel to be translated into English.
This is a short book full of intense longing for a path and deep sadness over loss. It is also about how choices we make may haunt our families for generations.
Jonathan is headed to Greece to try and find himself after the loss of someone very important to him. He is fearful of the journey and what it will mean for him, and can't seem to let go of his family's somewhat tortured history. On the flight he communicates with the sister he loves but who is not traveling with him, as he tries to come to terms with his mother's alcoholism and his grandparent's complicated ties to their past and their homeland's turmoil. It is really a novella but an interesting read that encompasses more then seems possible in 116 pages.
December 14, 2022
[...]Τα ορφανά παιδιά τρέφονται από ιστορίες. Μεγαλώναμε μαζί τους. Τις φτιάχναμε στο μυαλό μας, τις ζωντανεύαμε. Οι λέξεις, ακόμα κι όταν ήσαν σημαδεμένες από τον πόνο, κλέβανε τον πόνο.[...]
🪶[...]Φοβάμαι, Τζόναθαν. Η ιστορία δεν θα σταματήσει να επαναλαμβάνεται. Έτσι είναι καμωμένος ο άνθρωπος, είναι στη φύση του να μην μπορεί να εμποδίσει την επανάληψη. Αυτό σημαίνει “άνθρωπος”, αυτό που δεν μπορεί να εμποδίσει την επανάληψη. Πιο πολύ κι απ' το θάνατο αυτό είναι που φοβάμαι, Τζόναθαν, την επανάληψ��. Το ίδιο κι η μάνα σου. Κι εκείνη έμαθε να τρέμει την επανάληψη. Τρόμος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φόβος, φόβος...»[...]
🪶[...]Φοβάμαι, Τζόναθαν. Η ιστορία δεν θα σταματήσει να επαναλαμβάνεται. Έτσι είναι καμωμένος ο άνθρωπος, είναι στη φύση του να μην μπορεί να εμποδίσει την επανάληψη. Αυτό σημαίνει “άνθρωπος”, αυτό που δεν μπορεί να εμποδίσει την επανάληψη. Πιο πολύ κι απ' το θάνατο αυτό είναι που φοβάμαι, Τζόναθαν, την επανάληψ��. Το ίδιο κι η μάνα σου. Κι εκείνη έμαθε να τρέμει την επανάληψη. Τρόμος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φταίω, φταίω, φόβος, φόβος, φόβος...»[...]
June 27, 2017
This book never really goes beyond the blurb on the back. Instead it appears that the blurb is meant to act as a summary of sorts, with the book only adding a few extra details.
October 15, 2025
Amazing novel
by professor Fotini Tsalikoglou who is an amazing writer with immense fantasy and quality
of thinking
by professor Fotini Tsalikoglou who is an amazing writer with immense fantasy and quality
of thinking
December 11, 2023
Good lord, how melodramatic.
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February 10, 2016In January 2013, Jonathan Argyriou, a Manhattan-born third generation Greek-American, boards a plane in New York for Athens. Jonathan is travelling to Greece to learn more about his family. He was brought up by his grandparents and his alcoholic mother, and he doesn’t quite understand the relationship between his grandmother’s younger sister and his grandfather. Jonathan converses with his sister, Amalia, imagining she is occupying the empty seat next to him. We thus learn of the tragedies faced by the Argyriou family. Their ruin had begun during the 1922 Greco-Turkish War, when two orphaned sisters, little Erasmia and Frosso, had to flee Smyrna village for Athens. While Erasmia eventually manages to reach America, Frosso does not. By the time the planes reaches Athens, from his soul-searching and brainstorming with his sister, past memories flood back to Jonathan such that he himself recollects a good deal of his ancestry.
As noted on this book’s cover, Fortini Tsalikoglou’s novel indeed “explores the blurred line between history and memory.” While the short length of the novel does not permit detailed character development, the stream-of-consciousness writing style admirably fleshes out the story. Some readers might question Jonathan’s motive in embarking on such a long journey of discovery; however, it is his psychological frame of mind, muddled by family secrets, that Tsalikoglou portrays as one from which he cannot escape. Similar to Faulkner’s famous quote, Tsalikoglou notes: “The past is never over. It isn’t even past.” Nevertheless, the narrative is not an easy read, and were it not for the book’s evocative cover, and the informative flap and back cover text, the plot would take a huge effort to comprehend.
This review first appeared in the HNR magazine issue 73 (August 2015)
As noted on this book’s cover, Fortini Tsalikoglou’s novel indeed “explores the blurred line between history and memory.” While the short length of the novel does not permit detailed character development, the stream-of-consciousness writing style admirably fleshes out the story. Some readers might question Jonathan’s motive in embarking on such a long journey of discovery; however, it is his psychological frame of mind, muddled by family secrets, that Tsalikoglou portrays as one from which he cannot escape. Similar to Faulkner’s famous quote, Tsalikoglou notes: “The past is never over. It isn’t even past.” Nevertheless, the narrative is not an easy read, and were it not for the book’s evocative cover, and the informative flap and back cover text, the plot would take a huge effort to comprehend.
This review first appeared in the HNR magazine issue 73 (August 2015)
May 13, 2015
As you delve into “The Secret Sister”, the reader is given a heads up on the content based on the haunting book cover. It’s an emotional story and shows the feelings and concerns of both the young woman Frosso and later the life of her older sister Erasima. Later the son, Jonathon makes his journey to Greece and we see his connection to his mother’s home country.
Thank you GoodReads for the book.
Thank you GoodReads for the book.
January 21, 2015
I won this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. I read it in almost one sitting. The story is good, I always enjoy to read a piece of history, even wrapped up in fiction. There are certain things that I didn't understand, but overall I liked it.
October 25, 2014
απ τις μεγαλυτερες βλακειες που εχω διαβασει.
March 1, 2015
*Copy via Goodreads First Reads*
I'm not entirely sure what was going on in this story. Maybe things were lost in translation(?). Anyway it ended up being a DNF for me.
I'm not entirely sure what was going on in this story. Maybe things were lost in translation(?). Anyway it ended up being a DNF for me.
January 30, 2015
It is a marvel of great writing that could cram so much emotion into such a few pages. This was a Goodreads giveaway.
April 18, 2015
Rambling headed nowhere.
This is the worst thing I have ever read.
Stanley Kubrick would love it. Waste of time won't get back
This is the worst thing I have ever read.
Stanley Kubrick would love it. Waste of time won't get back
May 8, 2022
Dialogue introspectif qui dévoile les fragments d'une histoire familiale, des morceaux d'individus.
December 30, 2015
Just not my cup of tea.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews