Ghost of the Sun - Hardcover

Petrakis, Harry Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312043198 ISBN 13: 9780312043193

Publisher: St Martins Press, 1990

Synopsis

In the sequel to "A Dream of Kings," Leonidas Matsoukas returns from Greece after years of torture and imprisonment to face two dilemmas--his wife's remarriage and the presence of his archenemy

About this title

Reviews

A wounded lion, a battered Jeremiah, limping Leonidas Matsoukas is not quite the lustful, Zorba-like hero last encountered in Petrakis's 1966 novel, A Dream of Kings . At the start of this heartbreaking new saga, Matsoukas, after burying his son in Greece and enduring five years of torture in a Greek prison, returns to Chicago to find his old neighborhood gone. His wife, Caliopeok , who assumed him dead, has remarried a Greek-American real estate magnate. Still deeply in love with her, Matsoukas takes solace in a fatherly relationship with a young single mother. But when the old swashbuckler discovers that the jailer who tortured him is now living in Chicago, exacting vengeance becomes his consuming passion. Despite some excesses, including grandiloquent dialogue and overt comparisons between the protagonist and Anthony Quinn, this moving, darkly lyrical, even noble story rises in moments of dramatic intensity to a neat double-surprise ending.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this sequel to A Dream of Kings (LJ 7/66) Matsoukas has returned to Chicago from Greece, where his young son had died, and he had been jailed by the Junta for five years. Tortured in prison by the evil Farmakis, Matsoukas dreamed only of revenge and his wife and daughters. Now he learns that his wife has remarried. Because his feet and legs have been wrecked by torture, he finds himself in the hospital. (There's a wonderful scene where Matsoukas seeks clarity from three pompous neurosurgeons.) He meets with his ex-wife and her husband, and also rescues a young girl with an infant and cares for them. When he finally confronts Farmakis, his past and present determine his actions. The vitality, humor, and Greek passion that infused the earlier book are very much evident here. The thread of pride runs through the marvelous adventures and observations of the hero; and the result is a most satisfying novel that can be read independently of its predecessor. Recommended.
- Robert H. Donahugh, formerly with Youngstown & Mahoning Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: St Martins Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312043198
• ISBN 13: 9780312043193
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 262