Guernica Editions

Pan Bouyoucas and Maureen Labonté (Translator)

A very successful detective fiction writer, Leo Basilius, decides to bring his popular crime series to a close and take a sabbatical on the Greek island of Nysa where, as a young man, he wrote his first books - poetry and short stories. He returns there intending to write his master piece. The one he knows he has in him. Surrounded by his wife and new island friends, he settles in to write. But unexpectedly his main character, Detective-Sargeant Vass Levonian, appears demanding that Basilius resurrect him. The hauntings multiply and inspiration doesn't come. Leo Basilius wants to find fulfilment as a writer. But can he? Is it too late? Can you leave a mark? And what should that mark be? What do we leave behind? What is our legacy? And ... Is there still time to do something about it?