The House on Paradise Street

 by Sofka Zinovieff 

A historical fiction about Greece’s recent history, published in 2012.

The author.

Sofka was born in Putney, studied social anthropology at Cambridge and carried out research for her PhD in Greece, which marked the beginning of a lifelong involvement with the country. She married a Greek and lived in Athens for many years. She now divides her time between Athens and England. She is also the author of “The red Princess, Eurydice Street, Mad boy, Lord Berners, my Grandmother and me” and “Putney” her latest novel, published in 2018.

Historical note.

After 400 years of Ottoman control and many rebellions, Greece’s independence was declared in 1821. Unfortunately, new wars would start again after WWI, when the Greeks attempted to extend their territory. Assisted by the Allies, they first conquered regions in the North and in the Ionian and Aegean Seas where they were successful. When they also tried to advance into Turkey they met with the fierce resistance of the New Turks under Kemal Ataturk (1919-22) which caused violent fights and carnages in the regions where Greek communities lived. Following those fights, the Great Fire of Smyrna broke out in 1922, burning down all Armenian and Greek quarters. The author stresses its major importance because it was followed by the forced repatriation of most Christian inhabitants of Asia Minor. More than a million (1.400.000) refugees arrived in Greece including Antigone Perifanis’ mother and uncle.

The Novel.

Zinovieff relates the story of the Perifanis, a family whose problems and divisions reflect the political unrest which the whole of Greece had to face from the years after WWI onwards. The house on Paradise Street, Athens, has been their home for four generations. Their story spans the forced repatriation of the Greeks from Smyrna, World War II, the Civil War and the democratic regime, up to the 2008 riots.

Two narrators tell their story.

Maud, the English third wife of Nikitas is the first one. She is a social anthropologist as well, who came to Greece to do field work like the author.

Antigone, the second narrator is Nikitas’s mother, who had to abandon her son aged three, when she fled Greece for Moskow, during the Civil War (GCW).

Maud tells the story of her first idyllic years in the house, she recounts how she was surrounded by neighbours and extended family and soon had a baby girl. She studied the language and like Sofka, she enjoyed discovering Athens and its customs.

Her husband, Nikitas, a journalist was very independent, flamboyant and rebellious, although very private when it came to his personal life. Maud did not really know her husband well. He never spoke about his mother or about her family. On some occasions though, he had alluded to uncle Spiros, his  foster fathers’ violence, a clue to future developments in the story.

After Nikitas’ death in a car crash, Antigone, returned from sixty years of exile, for the funeral of her son.

Maud, who wanted to investigate her late husband’s complicated past, approached Antigone who would gradually reveal the events that tore her family apart and caused terrible feuds.

With her reminiscences Greece’s recent history unfolds, which is cleverly intertwined with the Perifanis’ story.

The narrative follows the lives of two ancestors, Antigone’s mother and uncle Diamantis, who arrived in Greece as refugees. Antigone’s mother had found her way out of misery, contrary to most other refugees, who continued to live in miserable shanty towns.

At this point, Zinovieff plants the seeds for the ideological divisions in the family through the role of Uncle Diamantis who invited young Antigone and her little brother to the very poor “New Smyrna” shanty town. He showed them such extreme suffering that it would be impossible for them not to adopt his belief in “social justice” and the promise of an “Earthly Socialist Paradise”. The children enjoyed their uncle’s stories, especially when he took them out for ice-cream afterwards. Once indoctrinated, those communist ideas would stay with them and drive them for the rest of their lives. Those ideas were in opposition with the democratic or conservative beliefs of the other family members. Her sister Alexandra and husband Spiros stuck to their parents’ tradition.

Between the two wars, Communism did not stop growing in Greece and it became a continuous threat to all the frequently changing Greek governments.

During WWII, when the country was successively occupied by Italy, Germany and Bulgaria, a Resistance movement (EAM) and a National Liberation Army (ELAS) were created which Antigone and her brother eagerly joined.In a lively prose, Zinovieff describes how Antigone and her fellow freedom fighters, started operating in groups all over the country, from the war torn streets of Athens to the mountain caves and villages.

However, by 1944, when the communists had the upper hand in most of the country and launched terror campaigns, the English allies and the Greek democrats realised the danger and decided to violently crush the Liberation Army. This led to the bloody DEKEMVRIANA (December events) followed by the CIVIL WAR which broke out between Communists and British-backed government forces and it was more vicious than the previous war against the occupying forces with 10% of the population killed.

As a result, ELAS went underground and retreated to the mountains to continue guerrilla attacks and even started to abduct young ‘janissaries’.

The book gives a lively and realistic report of the horrors during the repression and how Antigone and Marcos continued to fight in this exploding atmosphere.

The former Resistance Fighters were betrayed by the same people who supported them in their struggle against the foreign occupation. Eventually Marcos, Antigone’s brother, denounced by Spiros, his foster father, would be violently killed in the fights. Spiros, formerly pro-Nazi, had changed sides to be informer for the British. The obstinate Antigone will eventually be imprisoned together with many of her comrades.

The role of the British, who changed policies in order to prevent the rise of another communist ‘Nation’ is personified by British agent, John Fell. He embodies their ambiguous policy, a former ally of the Resistance, he helped eliminate it during the Civil War.

Zinovieff has chosen the Perifanis family with its divisions and feuds as symbol of Greece and its fractures. The family’s history explains how the fractures came about and how they would stay for years to come. In her description of the repression and of the fractures, she is understanding and impartial.

Despite its complexity, the novel is amazingly well structured and it is not all pure fiction, as events are based on real life experiences of members of the author’s family and acquaintances. It is a gripping story which reads like a page turner.

The characters, vibrant Mediterranean types, committed to politics, as well as, the expatriated English ones, are well drawn.

Lots of themes are dealt with, from indoctrination and its origins to ideology and its disastrous effects on families to ‘shifting allegiances’, within a family.  The Greek tendency to political discussions and continuous involvement in politics on all levels of society is masterly illustrated. It even includes young flag waving schoolchildren who get involved in street demonstrations and riots as in 2008. This may be a topic for further debate as it is in fashion here, as well!

Why did the author choose another ‘social anthropologist’, Maud, as narrator? Greek idiosyncrasies have been observed in detail and all chapters are illustrated with descriptions of Greek customs, by a specialist in this field. Among the multiple examples, the lemon tree by the house, a totem, its leaves picked and chewed by the visitors, lemon syrup, a delicacy, offered to guests. Funerals and their rites are reported in detail, watching the ‘Charos’, with drinking rituals, guests and priests as ceremony masters, the importance of the highest place in the cemetery and finally the burial of Marcos, Antigone’s brother, a  copy of the well-known ‘Sophocles tragedy’.

Little spicy meatballs and other savoury delights from Asia Minor brighten up several chapters of the story, as do the sunny images of nature:

 “… an amorous spring in Athens”, “like a…bride with flowers and veils…drifts of camomile…clouds of scent… bitter-orange trees with outrageously perfumed blossoms…”

Irène van Steenberge