Editorial Content for Archipelago
Book
Contributors
Reviewer (text)
Almost from its first page, Natalie Bakopoulos’ third novel, ARCHIPELAGO, brings to mind the work of writers like Rachel Cusk and Katie Kitamura. Unfortunately, this evocative but less than fully formed story of a middle-aged American expatriate writer and her passage through lovely parts of coastal Southern Europe suffers in that comparison. Read More
Teaser
Along the way to a translation writing residency on the Dalmatian coast, ARCHIPELAGO’s unnamed narrator has an unsettling, aggressive encounter with a man on a ferry, which sets off a series of strange events. At the residency, she reunites with Luka, an old friend who seems to have included a version of her in his novel. They strike up a romantic relationship as she continues her translation work. The hazy summer stretches on until, after a sudden shift, she embarks upon an impulsive road trip back to Greece, crossing borders.
Promo
Along the way to a translation writing residency on the Dalmatian coast, ARCHIPELAGO’s unnamed narrator has an unsettling, aggressive encounter with a man on a ferry, which sets off a series of strange events. At the residency, she reunites with Luka, an old friend who seems to have included a version of her in his novel. They strike up a romantic relationship as she continues her translation work. The hazy summer stretches on until, after a sudden shift, she embarks upon an impulsive road trip back to Greece, crossing borders.
About the Book
Natalie Bakopoulos’ ARCHIPELAGO is a striking, haunting novel that offers meditations on the slippery borders of nations, languages, middle age and the self.
Along the way to a translation writing residency on the Dalmatian coast, ARCHIPELAGO’s unnamed narrator has an unsettling, aggressive encounter with a man on a ferry, which sets off a series of strange events. At the residency, she reunites with Luka, an old friend who seems to have included a version of her in his novel. They strike up a romantic relationship as she continues her translation work.
The hazy summer stretches on until, after a sudden shift, she embarks upon an impulsive road trip back to Greece, crossing borders. Spare and lyrical, with subversions of the Odyssey and its singular Ithaca, ARCHIPELAGO charts a wending journey back to the narrator’s family house --- not simply back to a self and home, but beyond it.
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