Zigzag Through the Bitter-Orange Trees

Book excerpt: Zigzag through the Bitter Orange Trees was published in Greece in 2000, where it was acclaimed as the best novel of the decade and became the first novel to win both the Greek State Prize for Literature and the prestigious Book Critics' Award. In Zigzag through the Bitter Orange Trees we enter the lives of four young people in modern Greece: Lia, ailing in the hospital of a mysterious disease; her brother Sid, her only remaining connection to the outside world; Lia's nurse Sotiris, an unstable blend of ambition and desire; and thirteen-year-old Nina, whose daydreams lead her to wander far from home. These four unforgettable voices intertwine to tell a story of both relationship and isolation; with dark humor and disarming power, Sotiropoulos portrays the world of the young-hopeful and apathetic, beautiful and grotesque.