Ο καιρός των χρυσανθέμων

Hermoupolis, on the island of Syros, is in decline when, one winter in the 1890s, the company of Evangelia Paraskevopoulou comes to perform at the Apollo Theatre. The actress, a real figure and the greatest stage star of her day, started out as a maidservant from Smyrna and plays Hamlet. The troupe is invited to dinner by the Pinas family, old aristocrats whose wealth and prestige are gone, and as faded nobility and players mingle, hidden truths emerge. The novel dwells on the actor's craft, its fears and joys, and halfway through Shakespeare himself steps in as a character to deliver a long monologue.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

411 pages in the original

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Greece, 1896

First published

2004 by Μεταίχμιο

Author's age

66 when first published

ISBN

9789603756798 (original)