Wildcat under the glass

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Category: Literature

Published on Friday, 16 December 2016 16:27

Today I would like to talk to you again about Greek literature.
The book I would like to introduce to you today is called “Το Καπλάνι της Βιτρινας” or in English “Wildcat under the glass” by Alki Zei.
The story takes place in the year 1936 in the village Malagari on Samos with the siblings Melia and Mirto as the two protagonists.
Through the story we often find the phrase “Efpo? Lipo?” being asked between the siblings at night, being a sign for each other that they can talk about happenings and their feelings through the day.

The answer on this question changes in the progress of the story as the situation they live in changes drastically from one moment to another.
The other main characters of the story are the children of the village, their parents, their grandfather, their aunt Despina, the servant Stamatula and their cousin Nikos.
The nice and fun daily life of the girls changes in an instant with the start of the dictatorship of Metaxa.
Words in the household are getting to be a taboo, their most beloved cousin Nikos vanishes, their daily life is now full of secrets which have to be hold and much more happens.
And behind everything for the two girls and their friends “the wildcat under the glass” at their house plays its own role and the story flows.
The interesting thing about the book is that even if it counts today as a very good book for children, when it was written it did not get published as the content was categorized as communistic.
After the end of the Chounta it got finally published and became a much loved book, a discussed one, it became a lesson in universities and even a series in TV.
So I hope I got to make you interested for that really good book and maybe you are now curious to get to know why it got censored in the past and why it counts today as an excellent book for children.