Acclaimed author and former anthropologist Sofka Zinovieff unpacks her adopted home, Athens, to help you excavate the multi-layered Greek capital. By Amanda Dardanis Want to scratch beneath the surface of a city? Who better to ask than a former anthropologist? Especially one who has spent two decades living in said city; bringing up her
Join us as we Unpack Athens in our brand new Podcast Series By Amanda Dardanis “All cities are complex but Athens has an especially tangled character—it’s both spectacularly ancient and undeniably modern.”—Sofka Zinovieff, author. Athens has more layers than a moussaka. As the city reopens to tourism again this month, we
In Greece You Don’t Choose Your Village Most Greeks have ancestral ties to villages they regularly visit. And, just like in a family, these reunions can be at once joyful and maddening. Sofka Zinovieff | June 23rd, 2020 When lockdown eased and travel outside one’s home region was permitted, we escaped the unseasonal heatwave in Athens
26 Best Travel Books That Will Take You All Around the World No plane ticket required. By Elena Nicolaou Jun 25, 2020 Sofka Zinovieff, a Brit, moves to her husband’s native Athens to raise their two daughters. From her vantage point between cultures, Zinovieff can observe Greek customs as she participates in them. Eurydice Street is the honest
Why Are Greeks So Hospitable? An Anthropologist’s View Is there more to a spoon sweet than meets the eye? Anthropologist Sofka Zinovieff examines the hidden layers of meaning in Greek hospitality. By Sofka Zinovieff | February 12th, 2020 I first lived in Greece in the late 1980s as a student. I’d exchanged chilly Cambridge
Reading Greece | Sofka Zinovieff: “I have a strong belief in the resilience of Greeks” What does it mean to be Greek? What connects Greek and British people? How does the ancient Greek heritage weigh on contemporary Greeks? These are some of the questions that the acclaimed British author, Sofka Zinovieff, attempts to answer in her
Andrew Marr in the New Statesman I “hugely enjoyed Putney by Sofka Zinovieff, about sexual obsession in the freethinking 1970s, and the anti-paedophilia world of today. It is beautifully written and genuinely shocking; it’s as if Nabokov had given Lolita eyes and a very clear voice.” Alex Preston in The Observer “Smart and furiously gripping.”
The latest Woody Allen story is creepy, but let’s not call it criminal Sofka Zinovieff I don’t defend the film director over his alleged affair with 17-year-old Christina Engelhardt, but the realities of power and sex are complex The Guardian 20 Dec 2018 I love the #MeToo movement. As the mother of two
“Despite momentous changes recently, Sofka Zinovieff’s Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens (Granta), published in 2004, remains the best account of today’s Greece, with sharp insights into nationalism, terrorism and the Orthodox church.” Michael Kerr, travel writer 25 JULY 2016 Newer offerings A single-volume primer? Try A Concise History of Greece (1) by Richard Clogg (Cambridge University Press),
