All the short stories of Petros Tatsopoulos, scattered so far in four collections—Animations (1984), Light Stories (1995), Comedy (1999), Spicy Stories (2005)—are now gathered in the volume you hold in your hands. A sharp look at the modern tragelafo.
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Centripetal feelings have their own pathology. The first-person mask more specifically, an elixir of persuasive storytelling, has ways of making life speak from the inside as if it were on the edge of honesty. In this art of the persuasive parade of a cynicism that has its own practical aesthetics and in need cures the flea, Petros Tatsopoulos can be considered a master. With suitable muzzles various faces that are assured of bad testimony from the outside, he achieves a climate of elegant depravity that oscillates smugly between the happenings of the police report and the obsessions of a tested short story that studies the value in the trivial.
KOSTIS PAPAGIORGIS
Petros Tatsopoulos was born in Rethymnon in December 1959. He studied economics and political science. He worked as a practicing social worker, co-screenwriter (Oi Apenanti [1981] by Giorgos Panousopoulos, Underground Route [1983] by Apostolos Doxiadis), journalist, publishing consultant and presenter of cultural shows on public and private television: Spirit of Contradiction (ΕΤ-1 , 1999-2000), Great Greeks-Eleftherios Venizelos (SKAI, 2009), 1821 (SKAI, 2011), Bra de Fer (Action 24, 2014). Together with Kostas Murselas, Giorgos Skourtis and Antonis Sourounis, he participated in the Game of Four (1998). He has published nineteen books. Among them: The Minors (1980), The Painkiller (1982), The Heart of the Beast (1987 – adapted to the cinema by Reno Charalambidis in 2005), The First Appearance (1994), Honorable Mention (2004), The Kindness of Strangers (2006), New Hellenes (2007), Sisyphus on the Balcony (2009 – Athens Academy Award), The Book for Books (2010), Gagarin (2016). His novels and short stories have been translated into English, French, German, Turkish and Czech. Member of the board of directors of the Society of Writers in the period 2001-2003, under the chairmanship of Vassilis Vassilikos. Short-lived vice-president of the National Book Center in 2010. In May 2012 he was elected MP with SYRIZA. Participated in the Greek parliamentary delegation to the Council of Europe (2012-2013). From January 2014 until the end of the same year he was an independent member of parliament. He has two children, Giannis and Danae.