Scorpionfish
I can’t stop telling everyone I know to read Scorpionfish this summer. Here’s what I wrote in Alma’s summer books preview: This is a novel where you can practically taste summer on its pages. I don’t believe in the concept of “summer books” (anything you read in the summer is a summer book) but this, my friends, is a summer book. Natalie Bakopoulos has crafted a magnetic story of a summer in Greece — filled with art, love, and loss — centering on two mesmerizing characters: a woman named Mira, and a man just called “the Captain.” After the tragic death of her parents, Mira returns to her childhood home in Athens, Greece. Next door lives the Captain, a former ship captain who is no longer at sea and dealing with a messy divorce. They speak across their balconies, forming a shared intimacy in the night. Mira had returned to Athens expecting to clean out her parents’ apartment, stay with her boyfriend, Aris, a Greek politician, and then return to her life as an academic in Chicago — but nothing goes according to plan. She soon falls back in with her friends, Dmitria and Fady, a couple caring for a Syrian refugee boy, and Nefeli, her aunt’s lover of many years who is working on a new art installment.
And then Tin House (publisher of Scorpionfish!) quoted me when advertising the book, which is something that has started happening more and I’ll never get over it:
What I loved about Scorpionfish was how intimate it was: It felt like you were on the balcony with Mira and the Captain, listening to them navigate whatever it was that was happening between them. The novel was so atmospheric — and transported you, instantly, to Athens. You smelled the Athens air and got the vibe of the city. Really well-told stories transport you to another world, and Scorpionfish did exactly that.
Rating:★★★★★
