I keep my promise and I recommend in this post
a book by Petros Márkaris. I loved. It is about his work "Próxima
estación, Atenas". They listened well. No. It is not a novel. It's a trip
through Athens.
Petros Márkaris was born in Istanbul in 1937.
He studied Political Science in Vienna and Stuttgart.
He lives since he was a child in Athens and
collaborated with the great Theo Angelópoulus in the film "La mirada de
Úlises".
Do not trust. The book "Next station,
Athens" is not a delicious walk in Athens. It does not matter what the
cover of the book says. Petros Márkaris tells us the history of each Athenian
neighborhood. It has a unique authenticity. Many times it is painful. If you
are empathetic with the dispossessed, the workers, the migrants and the victims
of the Greek Military Junta, Lords of Death after the civil war that took place
in Greece after the Second World War this is a book for you.
I do not recommend people who are ignorant of
the Greek reality to read this work. First you must see in the media the Greek
events of the last ten years. One has to be clear that politicians are corrupt
and in the words of Markaris that: "they have abandoned the Greeks to
their fate".
I believe that Athens would have been the
perfect victim if it were not for the citizens who love her and fight for her
from her humble homes.
If you dare to read this book, you will
understand the history of Latin America and Africa from the 1973 oil crisis and
the triumph of neoliberalism, the expression of authoritarian regimes or what I
usually call "economic Nazism".
All this is understood in this work. Read
"Next station, Athens" before the West dies of an attack of
"Modernity".
Lía Olga Herrera Soto
