The Birthday Party - Tapa dura

"A rollicking read...A serious meditation on masculinity and commercial power in 20th century Greece. Fans of Karnezis' previous books will not be disappointed. Marco [the main character] is a huge and splendidly flawed hero for a five-star novel, that like all Karnezis' fictions, reveals many different Greeces. This is for anyone who loves soap operas, Homer, business or biography and confirms Panos as the finest (OK, only) living Greek engineer-turned-writer of English novels in the world."--"The Times (London") "Fantastically atmospheric and with the anticipation of a surprising denouement interwoven with flashbacks or this extraordinary man's life, this is a masterpiece."--"Grove" Praise for Panos Karnezis: "Unless lightning strikes or the earth opens up beneath him, Karnezis seems likely to take his place beside the masters of Eastern European storytelling. . . . The Greek imagination has found a new dark, witty avatar." --"The Independent on Sunday" "Karnezis has captured the spirit of his people and spoken for them in a spellbinding, universal voice." --"The Times "(UK) "From the Hardcover edition."

It is the summer of 1975. An Onassis-like tycoon is nearing the end of his life. When he finds out that his daughter, with whom he’s having a problematic relationship, is pregnant by a man he does not approve of, he has a birthday party for her on his private island, secretly intending to persuade her to end the pregnancy: a doctor is standing by to perform the procedure on the spot. The story starts on the morning of the party before the guests arrive and ends the following day when all the guests are gone. The novel intersperses the events that take place before, during and after the party with flashbacks to the tycoon’s rise to wealth and fame, from his childhood in Asia Minor in the 1920s to old age, via Buenos Aires, New York, London and Paris.