Little Infamies Stories

In a nameless Greek village, the lives of its citizens--the priest, the whore, the doctor, the seamstress, the mayor--and even its animals--a centaur, a parrot that recites Homer, a horse called History--are entwined. As their lives intersect, their hidden crimes, their little infamies, are revealed, in a place full of passion, cruelty, and deep reserves of black humor. Panos Karneziswas born in Greece in 1967 and worked as an engineer in Britain before receiving an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. He lives in London. ANew York TimesNotable Book ALos Angeles TimesBest Book Panos Karnezis's remarkable stories are all set in the same nameless Greek village. His characters are the people who live therethe priest, the whore, the doctor, the seamstress, the mayorand the occasional animal: a centaur, a parrot that recites Homer, a horse called History. Their lives intersect, as lives do in a small place, and they know each other's secrets: the hidden crimes, the mysteries, the little infamies that all of us commit. Karnezis observes his villagers with a worldly eye, and creates a place where magic invariably loses out to harsh reality, a place full of passion, cruelty, and deep reserves of black humor. These stories recall the masters of the formthe wit and sophisticated playfulness of Saki and the primal fatalism of Prosper Meacute;rimeacute;ebut they are utterly original and prove that Karnezis is one of Britain's most remarkable young writers. "Downright miraculous . . . Spry and playful, sly and macabre . . . Karnezis's language is fresh, lyrical, natural . . . seducing you into its magically real and soon-to-be-spectral world."The New York Times Book Review "Noteworthy . . . A deft stylist: clear and direct, yet subtly ironic . . . Like many of the masters of this genreGuy de Maupassant, Flannery O'Connor, Eudora WeltyKarnezis is adept at delivering one startling surprise after another."Merle Rubin,Los Angeles Times "Fierce, twisted, darkly funny stories . . . [Karnezis] has a sharp, unsentimental eye for contemporary Greek life, while deftly adding intimations of the pagan past."The New Yorker "Even the lightest of [these stories] carries the weight of archetypes burned over millennia into our collective conscience, yet each is wonderfully leavened by the author's deadpan prose [and] his hair-trigger sense of timing . . . Surely the gods are smiling on Panos Karnezis."Alix Wilber,The Seattle Times "Earthy, playful, marvelous, the tales inLittle Infamiesfeel time-honored and wise because Panos Karnezis achieves total authority. Like Ha Jin inUnder the Red Flag, he gives us the dreams and schemes of a tiny village largely forgotten by the modern world yet ultimately subject to its whims. An amazingly assured, accomplished debut."Stewart O'Nan, author ofThe Night CountryandA World Away "Karnezis main achievement here is the creation of a harsh, searing, often comic world with colorful characters and many great lines."San Francisco Chronicle "In his lucid and distilled prose, Panos Karnezis gives us mesmerizing tales that are combinations of fable and realism. Providing an exotic taste of Greek culture and a strong sense of place, the stories are nevertheless universal in their nuanced, humorous implications about human nature. I simply couldn't stop reading them."Tim Gautreaux "Confidently moving between farce, menace and tragedy, Karnezis holds a light up to the fleeing joy and ultimate futility of life."Chris Power,The Times(London) "Unless lightning strikes or

Panos Karnezis was born in Greece in 1967. He moved to England in 1992 to study engineering, and worked in industry before he started to write. He was awarded an M.A. in creative writing by the University of East Anglia. He lives in London.