10-12 OCTOBER 2025
The head of Chatsworth
16:45
BOOK PRESENTATION
by Constantia Sotiriou
DESCRIPTION
Nikos Trimikliniotis, recognized for his academic engagement with issues of identity and historical memory, talks with the author about the way in which literature illuminates the unspeakable and reveals the cultural tensions that define place.
At the heart of the discussion:
– How heroes become carriers of historical narratives
– The role of gender, power and silence
– Reinterpreting the past through writing
– The confrontation with the national narrative and the multiple identities of the “other”
A meeting of literature and reflection that highlights the power of storytelling as a political and moral act.
From the back cover
"God has rained a lot this year, and if it hadn't rained a lot, the rivers wouldn't have flowed, the trees wouldn't have been watered, the flowers wouldn't have grown, the wells wouldn't have been filled, the roads wouldn't have flooded, the mine shafts wouldn't have overflowed, the waters wouldn't have risen, they wouldn't have carried ropes, wood, and rotten metal sheets, they wouldn't have carried old clothes, they wouldn't have brought bricks and rubble to the surface, the water wouldn't have pushed dead cats and murdered women to the surface..."
In April 2019, after prolonged rains in arid Cyprus, the body of a worker from the Philippines is discovered. A horrific tangle then begins to unravel, which will lead to the seven victims of the country's first serial killer, five immigrants and two children. The bodies will be found in various areas, including Kokkini Limni, the crater of the Kokkinopezoula mine, where dozens of miners have died in the past from pneumoconiosis. A woman who lost her husband young in the deadly mine is today telling the story of her own hard life, on the occasion of the gradual discovery of the murdered women. Next to her, the ancient voice of the place resounds, myths and beliefs that begin with the Homeric epics and end with the Chatsworth head, what remains of a bronze statue of Apollo, which haunts the lives and dreams of people even now. A story between the past and the future: the English colonialists, the immigrants, the Water Dragon, a place that constantly discovers, living and drowned, secrets. (From the publisher)
BRIEF CV
Constantia Sotiriou was born in Nicosia. She is a graduate of the Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Cyprus and holds a postgraduate degree in Middle Eastern History from the University of Manchester. She works at the Press and Information Office of the Republic of Cyprus.
Her novel Aise Goes on Vacation (Patakis Publications, 2015) was awarded the Athens Prize for Literature and was shortlisted for the State Awards of Cyprus and Greece; Voices from the Soil (Patakis Publications, 2017) was shortlisted for the State Awards of Cyprus and Greece. Her novella Bitter Country (Patakis Publications, 2019) was shortlisted by the magazine O Anagnostis, shortlisted for the Greek State Awards, awarded the Cyprus State Award in the Short Story/Novel category and was nominated for the European Prize for Literature 2021. Brandy Sour (Patakis Publications, 2022) was awarded the Cyprus State Award in the Novel category, and was published in English (Foundry Editions, June 2023) and is in the process of being published in French (Editions Heloise d'Ormesson). Her most recent work published by Patakis Publications is the novel The Head of Chatsworth (2025). She was named the winner of the 2019 Commonwealth Literary Prize for the Europe and Canada region, as well as the global winner of the competition for her short story "Death Customs", which is part of Bitter Country.
She has also written the children's book John's Blanket (Teleia, 2024), as well as plays for independent stages and the Cyprus Theatre Organization. She has participated in short story anthologies in Cyprus and abroad. Her short stories have been translated into English, French, Japanese, Serbian, Danish and Italian.