The thick shoes of Theodor Kallifatides (Molaoi, 1938) sink safely and quickly into the abundant snow that covers the streets of Stockholm – that city to which he arrived in 1964 from Greece – while the delegation of Spanish journalists that follows him He makes remarkable balances to avoid losing him, stumbling with little dignity. The publishing phenomenon represented by the works of this dynamic octogenarian continues. Galaxia Gutenberg now begins the publication of its autobiographical trilogy (childhood and adolescence) with Peasants and Gentlemen, which will be followed, in May, by The Plow and the Sword and, in October, A Cruel Peace. The Greek-Swedish author takes us, in this first volume, to the south of the Peloponnese, to the town of Yalós – a transcript of his hometown –, converted into his particular Macondo or his Yoknapatawpha, a small town where a great choral history takes place during the Nazi occupation. The mayor, the priest, the landless and landless peasants, the landowner, the deputy, the teacher, the bricklayer, the baker, the village fool, the partisans, the mothers and even the whores make up a hypnotic and tragicomic fresco.
Is this fiction?
It is one hundred percent non-fiction in the sense that everything I narrate is how it happened, I remember it or I have been told it.
It looks awesome...
The most incredible thing happens. I am not capable of inventing 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 invent anything? It's all there, before my eyes. My books are not so much about me but about what I see: my parents, friends...
He wrote this trilogy already installed in Sweden in the seventies. How was the?
It took me several decades to be able to do it. When I was 18, on a rainy day in Athens, this book appeared in my head. Full. All the events and all the characters. And I said to myself: “One day, you will write this.” But, by accident, I entered a theater school, I became an actor, I had to emigrate to Sweden, I went to university, I met my wife, we became parents... until, one summer day, a long time later, With the children playing in our house on the island of Gotland, I began 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, it got a very favorable review in Dagens Nyheter, Sweden's main newspaper, which said “a poet is born”, it sold 200,000 copies, it was translated into several languages... I never understood why, I only know that It was something that I had inside me and from then on others saw me as a writer.
It seems incredible to say even new things about the Nazi occupation...
It is an important part of European history. The Second World War claimed 60 million deaths, and we are told that it was to save democracy, peace and freedom. Very good, but where? In Spain, they had Franco; in the next country, to Salazar; In Greece the collaborators with the Nazis took power... Nothing changed, except the tyrant, we put a new one. These are things that those of us of a certain age and who experience them can tell young people.
Now the wars continue.
And many people defend them. I don't. It is a mistake to think of war as a solution to nothing. We have to change our mentality. Someone asked me, in a heated debate, what I would do if someone came to kill me. I responded: I would rather be killed than become a murderer. I couldn't live with that weight. Putin wants war, and it must be opposed, but without unleashing an arms race that will only lead to something worse.
His book has very humorous moments and others so hard that it is difficult to read them.
It was written with feelings of joy and fear at the same time. 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 kill you.
The rape scene...
Some stories were told to me by my parents or grandparents, think that I left the town when I was 8 years old. When the Germans arrived, the first person they arrested was my father, the teacher, falsely accused of being a communist. I was 3 years old and, incredibly, I remember that they took him away, arrested him all night and gave him a huge beating. The next day, we went to bring him food and it was a map, covered in bruises and stained with blood. My mother already told me: “Theo, you can't remember that, we didn't take you to prison.” And yet, I have the memory, vivid... It's very crazy how your memory invents.
One of its great themes is emigration. There is it here too...
I was a good kid, 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, they gave me a study credit, I was able to work, they published my books... They are my merits, true, but it also says something very good about the country.
The town's prostitutes have 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, which they often transmitted to you with proverbs. The town doctor visited them once a month to avoid illnesses. The tragic thing is that we integrate them into our daily routine, but we never understood how hard their lives were, 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 the owner of a brothel, who had specialized in boys' first time. Parents from all over Greece came with their children to be deflowered.
There is a lot of vitalism here, but also more violence than in his other works...
Look, my brother was sentenced to death twice by the military junta, he was only saved 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 in the mountains. He couldn't sleep for the rest of his life because at night he heard the screams of those two girls. My other brother, at 12 years old, had every bone in his body broken... The cruelty of a civil war is unmatched, it is unimaginable. It involves very complicated feelings, it is 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 happened was not the power of the people but rather that some Greek lords occupied the palaces of the Turkish bosses and they stayed to command them. By God, if we have recently had the position of prime minister or that of archbishop as the property of some very specific families...
He has books written in Swedish, like this one, and others in Greek. What language does she dream in?
Usually in Swedish. I dreamed in Greek until, in the fifth year of being here, I had recurring nightmares: I was speaking in public, I forgot Swedish and my pants fell off. One day, I dreamed that, but instead of panicking, I burst out laughing, and I've been dreaming in Swedish ever since.
