“Getting to know more about a relatively unsung capital is just one of several reasons to read “Eurydice Street”, Sofka Zinovieff’s captivating book about going to live in the city as the wife of a Greek official and mother of two rapidly Hellenising daughters….
It is infused with an indomitable joie de vivre. “
“A witty and engaging account of life in Athens”
“In the summer of 2001 Sofka Zinovieff accompanied her husband on a posting back to Athens. This book is both an account of her enthusiastic, if often balked, attempts to transform herself into a Greek, and a vivid evocation of a city in a chaotic ferment of change. In its lively and often trenchant blend of personal recollection and a depiction of an Athens of rowdy tavernas, resourceful refugees, majestic prostitutes, innumerable theatre companies, ferocious demonstrations and age-old customs affectionately preserved, this is a thoroughly engaging memoir.”
“Athens forms the background of Sofka’s writing debut, Eurydice Street, full of insight and humour. It is subtle, penetrating and written with disarming clarity. Sofka Zinovieff deserves a place on the shelves up there with Lawrence Durrell and Patrick Leigh Fermor.”
“A guidebook of a kind, a guide to the Athens that is rather than the Athens that is trying to be. It is both a modest and a magnificently well-judged book, which anyone thinking of an Athenian trip ought to read. It is generous, appreciative as well as exasperated. “
“The best way to understand the oddness of what it means to be Greek, the race which invented the concept of civilization, is to become Greek yourself.Sofka Zinovieff does just that. As an anthropologist, the author observes the process with an objective eye; as a wife and mother, it’s nothing less than total immersion.… Here is the inside track on what it means to be Greek; a lovely book, full of poetry, history and insights. “
“Like a Jew becoming a Nazi, was ho her relatives saw it. How could a brainy, sensitive woman, exiled from her homeland by a monstrous totalitarian regime that hounded her class and murdered her friends and relatives, become an unflinching supporter of its creed? That is the puzzling life of the beautiful Sofka Dolgorouky… The story is told by her granddaughter, Sofka Zinovieff, who maintains an appropriate tone of slightly bemused sympathy with her captivating but repellent subject… Yet anyone reading about her sizzling charm, guts and literary gifts can’t help thinking it would have been fun to know her.”
“In telling her story, she provides insights for anyone who might want to travel to the ancient city. (”There’s a definite knack to obtaining a taxi in Athens, which is something between catching a fish and public speaking to a restive crowd. You wave at any taxi, whether it has other passengers in it or not, and as it swerves over towards you, slowing down slightly, you shout out your destination. The taxi may be empty and ignore you, or it may be almost full and stop. ”
“An engaging profile of Europe’s most paradoxical capital – old as the hills, yet inventing itself anew. Zinovieff, polyglot and trained anthropologist, reveals her adopted home town with wit and perspicacity, from its hectic history to its domestic idiosyncrasies… In the end, this is a love story.”
“It is in the best tradition of ‘subjective’ books where the subject is so sensitive, knowledgeable and talented that the result can only be a roaring success.”