The thick shoes of Theodor Kallifatides (Molaoi, 1938) sink safely and quickly into the abundant snow that covers the streets of Stockholm – this city where he arrived in 1964 from Greece -, while the entourage of Spanish journalists who they follow him with remarkable balances, stumbling with scant dignity. The publishing phenomenon that the works of this dynamic octogenarian represent continues. Galaxia Gutenberg is now starting the publication of his autobiographical trilogy (childhood and adolescence) with Peasants and Gentlemen, to be followed in May by The Plow and the Sword and in October by Una Pau Cruel. The Greco-Swedish author takes us, in this first volume, to the south of the Peloponnese, to the town of Yalós – transsumpt from his hometown -, converted into his own Macondo or Yoknapatawpha, a small town where a great story takes place choir during the Nazi occupation. The mayor, the priest, the peasants with and without land, the landowner, the deputy, the teacher, the mason, the baker, the village fool, the partisans, the mothers and even the maids compose a hypnotic fresco and tragicomic
Is this fiction?
It is one hundred percent non-fiction in the sense that everything I narrate is as it happened, I remember it or it was told to me.
It looks amazing…
The most incredible thing happens. I’m not capable of making up stories, it would be a waste of time, everything is out there, or inside you. I come from a country with wars, dictatorships, various oppressions, occupations, emigration, civil war, unemployment, extreme poverty… Why should I invent anything? It’s all here, right in front of my eyes. My books are not so much about me, but about what I see: my parents, my friends…
He wrote this trilogy already settled in Sweden in the seventies. How was?
It took me several decades to be able to. At the age of 18, on a rainy day in Athens, this book appeared in my head. Completely All the facts and all the characters. And I said to myself: ‘One day, you will write this’. But by accident, I entered a drama school, became an actor, had to emigrate to Sweden, went to university, met my wife, became parents… until one day ‘summer, a long time later, with the children playing in our house on the island of Gotland, I started writing the book under a tree. I went crazy: I couldn’t stop writing, day and night, my wife even called the doctor, she thought I was going crazy. It was a miracle, I wrote it non-stop in four weeks. The book was published, got a very favorable review in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s main newspaper, which said “a poet is born”, sold 200,000 copies, was translated into several languages… I never understood why what, I just know that it was something that I carried inside and that from then on others saw me as a writer.
It seems a lie to say new things about the Nazi occupation…
It is an important part of European history. The Second World War caused 60 million deaths, and we are told it was to save democracy, peace and freedom. Great, but where? In Spain, they had Franco; in the neighboring country, Salazar; in Greece the collaborationists with the Nazis took power… Nothing changed except the tyrant, we put a new one. These are things that those of us who are of a certain age and experienced can explain to young people.
Now the wars continue.
And many people defend them. I do not. It is a mistake to think of war as a solution to anything. We have to change our mentality. Someone asked me, in a heated debate, what I would do if someone came to kill me. I answered: I would rather be killed than become a murderer. I could not live with this weight. Putin wants war, and it must be opposed, but without triggering an arms race that only leads to something worse.
His book has very humorous moments and others so hard that it is difficult to read them.
It was written at the same time with feelings of joy and fear. My generation experienced a lot of fear: you didn’t know who would come to kill you, the Germans, the leftists, the rightists, the partisans… Anyone could eliminate you.
The rape scene…
Some stories were told to me by my parents or grandparents, I think I left the village at the age of 8. When the Germans arrived, the first person they arrested was my father, the teacher, who was falsely accused of being a communist. I was 3 years old and, incredibly, I remember them taking him away, arresting him for a whole night and giving him a huge beating. The next day we went to bring him food and there was a map, full of bruises and stained with blood. My mother used to tell me: ‘Theo, you can’t remember it, we won’t take you to prison’. And yet, I remember it vividly… It’s crazy how your memory makes things up.
One of its major themes is emigration. There are also…
I was a good boy, with good grades, who couldn’t go to university in his country for political reasons. My father told me, with great pain: ‘This country has no place for you’. As soon as I arrived in Sweden, I was given a study credit, I was able to work, my books were published… These are my merits, of course, but it also says something very good about the country.
Village prostitutes play an important role…
In Spain I think it was something similar, whores were part of social life. They settled in urban centers that prospered and had a philosophy of life that they often passed on to you with proverbs. The village doctor visited them once a month to prevent illness. The tragic thing is that we integrated them into the daily routine, but we never understood how hard their life was, we only see what we want to see, not the truth of their existence. In Athens they were quite an institution, I wrote a book about one of them, Gabriela, a Russian emigrant, also owner of a brothel, who had specialized in the first time of boys. Parents came from all over Greece with their children for him to undress them.
There is a lot of vitality here, but also more violence than in other works…
Miri, my brother was sentenced to death twice by the military junta, he was only spared because of his illness, which caused the execution to be postponed. His only crime was refusing to participate in the gang-rape of two partisan girls on the mountain. He could not sleep for the rest of his life because at night he heard the screams of those two girls. My other brother, at the age of 12, had every bone in his body broken… The cruelty of a civil war is unparalleled, it is unimaginable. It involves very complicated feelings, it’s not going against the Nazis, but against your family or friends. It’s a terrible experience.
Why were there so many collaborators?
Some were fascists, others wanted power, others were monarchists who saw a lesser evil in a leader… After 400 years of Turkish occupation in Greece, what came was not the power of the people, but that some Greek lords occupied the palaces of the Turkish capitostos and stayed there to rule. My God, if we recently had the position of prime minister or archbishop as the property of very specific families…
He has books written in Swedish, like this one, and others in Greek. What language do you dream in?
Usually in Swedish. I used to dream in Greek until, in my fifth year here, I had recurring nightmares: I was speaking in public, I forgot my Swedish and my pants fell off. One day I dreamed about it, but instead of having a panic attack, I started laughing and I’ve been dreaming about Sweden ever since.
