Last Days in Plaka

Lazaridis’s previous work, Terra Nova (Pegasus, 2022), alternated between men trekking to the South Pole and the fight by one of their wives back home to win attention for suffragists. On the surface, this title is very different, taking place in “violently hot” Athens, Greece, where a young Astoria, New York woman is shyly finding her feet in her parents’ homeland. But she’s an explorer in her own way, and an intrepid one, “[uncoiling] the spring of opportunity” that her parents created for her and traipsing toward the traditional center of Greek life: the church. Anna’s parea—her friend group—won’t understand her need to find God, she tells herself; she also (correctly) surmises that they’ll be puzzled by her new choice of friend: an 82-year-old woman whom she meets when Father Emmanouil gives her fresh figs to bring to the woman’s home. As Anna gears up to…well, commit a crime, but one that has a kind motive, readers are immersed in her longing to find out who she really is, where she belongs, and whether she will ever find her way home. What Lazaridis calls her “strange little novel” is a wonderful mix of coming of age, immigrant stories, and the pain that lurks behind crumbling facades.