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The Greek Wall
A severed head is found on the Greek border near a wall planned to stop Middle Eastern immigrants crossing from Turkey. Intelligence Agent Evangelos wants the truth about the murder, human trafficking into Greece, and about the corruption surrounding the wall's construction. It is a mystery novel and a political thriller but more importantly it evokes the problems of the West incarnated in isolationism, fear of immigration, economic collapse, and corruption. While dark, it is also poetic and paints an indelible portrait of Athens, with its mixed fragrances of eucalyptus, freshly baked bread, and cigarette smoke.
276 pages, Paperback
First published December 18, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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November 28, 2018I got about 160 pages in before DNFing it... I don't know if it was the translation or the actual author, but this was poorly written. There were too many unnecessary flashbacks to things that had literally nothing to do with the plot, unneeded POV changes, and weak to no transitions. One minute character x would be thinking one thing and the next sentence would be something else.
There was one instance where the Agent (already forgot his name) asked a series of questions and then the author/ translator had the person he was talking to answer them..
but the questions weren't rapid fire.. It was literally has if they had a conversation, but the question and the response were organized into two different paragraphs rather than question-> answer, question -> answer format.
There was one instance where the Agent (already forgot his name) asked a series of questions and then the author/ translator had the person he was talking to answer them..
but the questions weren't rapid fire.. It was literally has if they had a conversation, but the question and the response were organized into two different paragraphs rather than question-> answer, question -> answer format.
April 23, 2018
The European refugee crisis has been front-and-center in the news media for so long it’s become easy to tune it out. In award-winning Swiss author Nicolas Verdan’s literary crime thriller, all the horrifying consequences of what happens when groups of people are ripe for exploitation are on display. And he doesn’t stop there, underscoring how wide its ripples have spread in European society.
It’s 2010, and Agent Evangelos of the Greek National Intelligence Service is sent to investigate a severed head found outside the northern city of Orestiada on the border separating Greece and non-EU Turkey border. Is it the head of a Westerner? That’s what Evangelos’s superiors want to know, and they want the answer to be ‘yes.’ Something else to blame on the refugees.
Finnish members of the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) found the head near the bank of the Evros River. This strip of land is not only Greece’s border but that of the EU’s passport-free Schengen Area—in a sense, all of Europe. It’s the main crossing point for refugees into the European Union. Greek politicians want to build a Trump-like border wall there, and they want the EU to pay for it. Greece certainly can’t. (In real life, a 10-mile wall—actually a razor-wire fence—was eventually built.)
Verdan’s novel – his first available in English – is part political thriller, part police procedural, part mystery. A brief prologue offers hints regarding who has lost his head, but the circumstances are murky.
Much of this literary, sensitively written novel adopts the close-up point of view of Agent Evangelos, who takes the constant reversals of policy in stride simply by ignoring them. His focus is on solving the crime, and he moves doggedly forward, even when he’s told not to push his inquiry too hard. Novels based on current events risk becoming outdated, but the essential humanity of Verdan’s characters make this story timeless. An extra star here for humanity.
It’s 2010, and Agent Evangelos of the Greek National Intelligence Service is sent to investigate a severed head found outside the northern city of Orestiada on the border separating Greece and non-EU Turkey border. Is it the head of a Westerner? That’s what Evangelos’s superiors want to know, and they want the answer to be ‘yes.’ Something else to blame on the refugees.
Finnish members of the European Border and Coast Guard (Frontex) found the head near the bank of the Evros River. This strip of land is not only Greece’s border but that of the EU’s passport-free Schengen Area—in a sense, all of Europe. It’s the main crossing point for refugees into the European Union. Greek politicians want to build a Trump-like border wall there, and they want the EU to pay for it. Greece certainly can’t. (In real life, a 10-mile wall—actually a razor-wire fence—was eventually built.)
Verdan’s novel – his first available in English – is part political thriller, part police procedural, part mystery. A brief prologue offers hints regarding who has lost his head, but the circumstances are murky.
Much of this literary, sensitively written novel adopts the close-up point of view of Agent Evangelos, who takes the constant reversals of policy in stride simply by ignoring them. His focus is on solving the crime, and he moves doggedly forward, even when he’s told not to push his inquiry too hard. Novels based on current events risk becoming outdated, but the essential humanity of Verdan’s characters make this story timeless. An extra star here for humanity.
August 16, 2023
Christina goes over the scene in her mind. "I could feel he was leaving. I let him go." They would never have reached such a point if she hadn't remained silent. Christina had said nothing. For too long, she hasn't spoken. Words take time to come to her, and by the time they reach her lips they're already ineffectual. So she remains silent, as always. When she met Nikos, she remembers, "he talked to me, he talked and talked, it was an uninterrupted stream, a developing narrative that he reeled off to me as if it was already written down and the time had come to recite it. [...] Only Nikos was talking. Already true to form for her, she was saying nothing. But she must have been smiling, and in her smile he could read the only words that mattered right then. They wanted each other, and no translation was needed for them to understand.
~~The Evros river between Turkey and Greece creates a natural obstacle to migrants trying to enter Greece, and by extension, all Schengen Agreement countries. One of our protagonists, Nikos, is trying to escape the other direction--into Turkey--when he finds himself the target of a massive manhunt.
First two sentences: The street rises and falls like a wave, surges again, swells, and falls again. These undulations give a sense of the neighborhood, with its crests and hollows, its gentle slopes.
My two cents: This mess of a novel made my head hurt, but had sections of decent writing. Given 1.5 stars or below average.
Further Reading: I'm unsure whether a wall between Greece and Turkey was in progress when Verdan wrote his novel in 2015...but one exists now. Here's an article from VOA talking about efforts to keep illegal migrants out of the Schengen Agreement countries. https://www.voanews.com/a/greece-to-t...
~~The Evros river between Turkey and Greece creates a natural obstacle to migrants trying to enter Greece, and by extension, all Schengen Agreement countries. One of our protagonists, Nikos, is trying to escape the other direction--into Turkey--when he finds himself the target of a massive manhunt.
First two sentences: The street rises and falls like a wave, surges again, swells, and falls again. These undulations give a sense of the neighborhood, with its crests and hollows, its gentle slopes.
My two cents: This mess of a novel made my head hurt, but had sections of decent writing. Given 1.5 stars or below average.
Further Reading: I'm unsure whether a wall between Greece and Turkey was in progress when Verdan wrote his novel in 2015...but one exists now. Here's an article from VOA talking about efforts to keep illegal migrants out of the Schengen Agreement countries. https://www.voanews.com/a/greece-to-t...
March 7, 2018
I wish I could read this book in the original French, I'm sure it's stunning. Even in translation with slightly odd colloquialisms, the writing stands out for its dramatic conveyance of character, setting, and plot. There's a little twist at the end that is completely unique as far as I can tell--your insight into the main character is greatly increased by a change in point of view, I won't go farther into it than that.
The book is best in the beginning as you get into Agent Evangelos' world, and I do mean World, as the book is really about modern Europe and Greece's role in it. The many jumps in time, usually a sign that the writer is not in control, provide the major tools for understanding the character and setting and their pasts and paths to the present. It's really masterful how Verdan does this. The book does bog down a bit when it switches to the other characters, but that's the only flaw I could find, and it's a minor one.
Kudos to Verdan and his translator for this wonderful book!
The book is best in the beginning as you get into Agent Evangelos' world, and I do mean World, as the book is really about modern Europe and Greece's role in it. The many jumps in time, usually a sign that the writer is not in control, provide the major tools for understanding the character and setting and their pasts and paths to the present. It's really masterful how Verdan does this. The book does bog down a bit when it switches to the other characters, but that's the only flaw I could find, and it's a minor one.
Kudos to Verdan and his translator for this wonderful book!
April 21, 2018
Verdan paints a brutal picture of Greece in the throes of economic chaos, some of its own making and some due to the machinations of the European Union with regards to the immigrant invasion.
Unfortunately, Verdan uses stream of consciousness for exposition of the story, a literary device I have disliked since reading Proust.
Unfortunately, Verdan uses stream of consciousness for exposition of the story, a literary device I have disliked since reading Proust.
April 18, 2018
A kind of thriller-mystery set in 2010 Greece involving corruption, migrants, sex trafficking and a head without a corpse.
August 13, 2018
An average police procedural novel, with Greek agent investigating a murder and political shenanigans. Pretty average storyline and the translation is murky at best. The ending is pretty lame.
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July 17, 2021did not finish, choppy read probably from translation
September 13, 2021
I absolutely loved this book. It was such heartwrenching and honest. The writing style was beautiful and I am sad that I will never get to read this book for the first time ever again.
February 25, 2024
La primer mitad del libro no me dijo nada, la segunda mejoró. No me gusto
February 10, 2025
This was a bit disappointing, like many other crime novels. A bit too clichéd and unbelievable and scripted at times. But a nice easy commute read that did make me want to go to Greece.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews