The Maze

by Panos Karnezis

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Summary

In the summer of 1922, after a series of decisive defeats at the hands of the Turks, the Greek army is in retreat from Asia Minor. Thousands of soldiers sweep toward the Mediterranean coast, leaving behind their dead, their dreams of empire . . . and one lost brigade, wandering in the Anatolian desert under a seemingly inexpiable curse. As their leader slips further and further into morphine-dulled despair, with no hope of escape for his troops, morale crumbles among the officers. Communist leaflets appear mysteriously every morning in the camp. A rash of thefts goes unsolved. And each man's thoughts turn, more and more often, to a single unspeakable act committed by the brigade in a moment of desperation. At first the men's luck seems to change when they stumble on a town-a Greek settlement untouched by the war, where the mayor and the schoolteacher are in fierce competition for the favors of the local courtesan, and a young, failed newspaper correspondent is drinking himself to death for lack of a story. But the brigade hasn't outrun its Furies; instead it brings them to this homely idyll, with fateful consequences for soldiers and citizens alike. The New York Times Book Review calls Panos Karnezis's writing "spry and playful, sly and macabre," observing that it "brings to mind the young Eudora Welty, especially in the fun it has with Greek legend and myth, [while its] intersection of gritty quotidian detail with flights of fancy recalls Gabriel Garcia Marquez." This first novel confirms Karnezis as one of Britain's most remarkable young authors. (Goodreads)

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