Dead Olives

Author/Guide: Jeremy Hinchliff

Why a Booktrail?

2013: A timely story of the migrants and the Economic troubles of Greece

ISBN: B01I4ALTG6
Genre: Fiction

Comment

What you need to know before your trail

Greece is caught in the jaws of economic crisis, and so the lives of its people are spiralling into disarray. As well as the locals struggling to survive, so too are the migrants who are fleeing their own misery and are also now caught up in the tensions of the situation unfolding in Greece, in both the cities and the rural villages. This chaos is represented in every layer of life as poverty and confusion know no bounds and now the right- wing militias are patrolling the streets, trying to calm the people and keep order.

Filoxénia is trying to carve out an independent life for herself in the city, while her beautiful sister Anássa is keeping dangerous company. Their lives are brought together by events at the FlyKing Hotel in downtown Athens. A theft. A shooting. And the flight of a group of migrants who all share one name.

Economic and racial tensions flare, old friendships are tested and loyalties broken.

Locations

Reset

Travel Guide

Much of the setting in Dead Olives is based on true fact. Maybe not the characters and the plot in some parts, but the financial chaos which blighted Greece in 2013 and which still exists today inspired the author to write something about it. He spent time in Greece during this time and witnessed the tensions and the issues faced by real people in the every day. The tensions perceived and otherwise are firmly the theme running throughout this book.

Many of the migrants are of course far from home and having to make a living as best they can. Some might steal if desperate whilst others try to make do with what they can, but they often have the passion and the determination to try – this is their life after all.

The contrast between those living in the towns an cities such as Athens and the smaller and in this case fictional villages of those such as Páno Pétro gives an overall picture of the Greek landscape ravaged by poverty and desperation.