A small Greek island in the aftermath of the financial crisis, now home to a small community of former city-dwellers displaced there after losing their jobs and homes in Athens or Thessaloniki. There are tensions between these “foreigners” and the indigenous islanders (whom they call “the rats”), not helped by the mafia-like way a few big players in agriculture and tourism have got the whole island’s economy locked down. Ikonomou makes it very clear how we are supposed to be looking at this situation by explicitly referencing the classic Greek refugee-story, Kazantzakis’s Christ recrucified, on the opening page of the first story in this short collection. Three of the stories deal with “foreigners” brutally put in their place after running foul of the cartels, whilst the other one — fragmented and partly interleaved between the main three — reminds us that no story is ever complete when we only have one point of view.

The point seems to be that bad times make people do bad things, but that they also create the possibility of hope: as one of the characters explains with a Zen-like insight, the notion that “good will come from the sea” only makes sense once you have fully embraced its absurdity (it becomes particularly absurd when we realise that the island has experienced a destructive earthquake and tidal wave within living memory). A painful, beautifully-written glimpse into the dark side of a place we would normally see only when it is full of scintillating light. ( )

Oof. Despair. But also excellent and thoughtful political commentary, interesting viewpoint and insight. ( )

Un gruppo di uomini e donne, tormentati dalla crisi economica che ha colpito la Grecia e la sua capitale Atene, decide di trasferirsi su un'isola nel Mar Egeo, in cerca di una vita e un futuro migliori. Ma l'isola è abitata da gente corrotta e inospitale, e ben presto gli "Ateniesi" si ritrovano vittime dello stesso circolo vizioso di potere e denaro che li aveva portati ad abbandonare la loro città. Dopo il successo di "Qualcosa capiterà, vedrai", uscito nel 2012, questa nuova opera di Christos Ikonomou torna a far luce sulle antiche ferite della moderna società greca e dell'Europa tutta. Collezionando storie intrise di lotta eroica, sacrificio e speranza, "Dal mare verrà ogni bene" è un toccante racconto di amore e rivolta.

In spite of, or rather because of, the brutally punitive austerity visited upon the Greek nation there is a remarkably vibrant, inventive contemporary literature and leading this remarkable charge is Christos Ikonomou whose latest book cements his reputation as one of the very best writers operating in Europe and the world and it is that very punitive austerity and its consequences that is at the core of Good Will Come from the Sea.

I will not reveal what happens in these four tales for fear of you not reading this book but believe me when I tell you that every one of them has the ring of the authentic, unembroidered reality.

Constructed in the form of four tales, a format much loved by contemporary Greek writers and one which I think suits modern readers perfectly, told from a small Greek island in the present allows Ikonomou to show not tell readers what that grinding austerity has done to the Greek people. It is not a pretty word picture that he paints but it is one that we all need to look at long and hard. His honesty and his truths are heartrending. At times they make the reader want to look away, to not find out what happens next for fear of something awful but then again Ikonomu will sometimes give you the beautiful, the lyrical, the humane, where you are expecting the worst. His touch is faultless. His timing impeccable. His message is ultimately hopeful and the title reflects this perfectly.

Not since Kazantzakis has a Greek writer looked so lucidly into the soul of his people without flinching and exposed it all. I would, were it in my gift, make every banker, economist and politician who inflicted this punishment on the Greek people read this book. I implore everybody visiting the country and its islands to read it. I would also recommend it to every Greek. This is post-austerity Greece for real, not the economic measures or the unemployment rates, the impersonal numerical accounting of austerity no, this is the human cost, and the societal damage laid bare. These four tales tell truths that most would rather not know but they are true nonetheless.

Ikonomou’s choice to set these tales on a single small island is pure genius. Tourists think they know island life, the metropolitan Greeks do not really know island life and also think they do but Ikonomou pulls no punches, gilds no lilies, tells it the way it is, the way we island dwellers live it.

This is a great book, an important book, and Ikonomou is a great, important writer. ( )