Three Summers

Synopsis

Set in the Greek countryside near Athens in the years before the Second World War, Three Summers follows three sisters through three formative summers as they move toward adulthood. Maria, the eldest, is outspoken and sensual, already imagining marriage and family; Infanta is beautiful, distant, and enigmatic; and Katerina, the youngest, is dreamy, rebellious, and intensely curious about the world around her.

Their large family home, surrounded by gardens and olive groves, becomes the setting for a world of friendships, flirtations, family tensions, secrets, and first loves. As the sisters encounter desire and independence, they begin to understand both themselves and the complicated adults who surround them. Their individual temperaments gradually pull them in different directions, while the rhythms of summer, the landscape, and the intimate life of the household remain constant.

First published in Greek in 1946, Three Summers is a luminous coming-of-age novel that captures the intensity of adolescence, the complexities of sisterhood, and the threshold between childhood and adult life. Margarita Liberaki's vivid, sensual prose gives the natural world an almost animate presence, while her unconventional narrative structure moves between perspectives and moments with the fluidity of memory. Karen Van Dyck's acclaimed translation brings this modern Greek classic to English with all its warmth, colour, sensuality, and emotional immediacy.

About the Author

Margarita Liberaki (1919–2001) was born in Athens and raised by her grandparents, who ran the Fexis bookstore and publishing house. She wrote novels, plays, and screenplays, including The Other Alexander and The Mystery, and translated Treasure Island into Greek. Three Summers has become a standard work of modern Greek literature and has been included in Greek and Cypriot public education.

Karen Van Dyck is a scholar and translator of modern Greek and diaspora literature and the Kimon A. Doukas Professor of Modern Greek Literature at Columbia University. Her work focuses particularly on literature, gender, and translation.

Publisher

New York Review Books Classics

Publication Date

July 9, 2019

Format

Paperback

Pages

264

Subjects

Literary Fiction; Coming of Age; Family Life; Sisters; Women; Modern Greek Literature; Translated Fiction

ISBN

9781681373300