The Maze - Softcover

Karnezis, Panos

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099513293 ISBN 13: 9780099513292

Publisher: Vintage, 2007

Synopsis

Anatolia, 1922. Pursued by a Turkish army after three years of Greek occupation, a retreating Greek brigade has lost its way. Commanded by a brigadier with a passion for Greek mythology and a secret addiction to morphine, the brigade's only chance of salvation is to reach the Mediterranean coast and sail home. As the army wanders through the inhospitable land, morale crumbles among the troops, a spate of thefts goes unsolved and every man's thoughts retrurn to a terrible act of vengeance committed by the brigade.

Their luck seems to change, when they come across a small town, up until then untouched by the war, where the mayor and schoolteacher are in competition for the favours of the local courtesan and a failed newspaper correspondent is drinking himself to death for lack of a story.

But instead of outrunning its Furies, the brigade brings them to this seemingly idyllic palace, with fateful consequences for soldiers and citizens alike.

About this title

Review:

Panos Karnezis' The Maze is a moving and engaging novel of warmth and humour. Set in Anatolia in 1922, a Greek expedition, lost in the desert, bickers among itself and blunders forwards toward the coast. Brigadier Nestor is as addicted to morphia as he is to Greek myths; Father Simeon is as disappointed in himself as he is passionately sincere in his religion; and the Bolshevik Major Porfirio, who has failed in his attempt to win any men to his cause, save for his colonel, are each wonderful creations.

Lying in the recent memory of all these men is a massacre of Turkish civilians carried out by the brigade, which weighs on them heavily. Coming across a town the brigade settles in for a few days. Here Nestor can investigate fully the recent thefts that have plagued him and try to work out who is behind the communist propaganda circulating the camp. As readers we are given the opportunity to meet, among others, Mr Othon, the schoolmaster, the foolish Mayor and his fiancé, the town's beautiful and exotic prostitute Madame Violetta, her maid Annina and her lover Yusuf the gardener.

Karnezis keeps the tone light throughout--one cannot help but be reminded of Captain Corelli's Mandolin. Particularly at the beginning he overwrites: the sentences are too fussy and there are too many similes. But the book soon finds its true rhythm and while the story never offers quite enough substance, it is an enjoyable read and one that recommends Karnezis as a skilled writer. --Mark Thwaite

Review:

"Karnezis seems likely to take his place beside the masters of European storytelling" (Independent on Sunday)

"The Maze confirms Karnezis as an original and important literary voice" (The Times)

"Worthy of Graham Greene. [The Maze is] an outlandish, ingeniously constructed novel as powerful and full of surprises as any ancient myth" (Sunday Telegraph)

"Enchanting... the mad beauty of Karnezis's imagination is entirely his own" (Guardian)

"Excellent... Assured and sophisticated" (Sunday Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0099513293
• ISBN 13: 9780099513292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208