ABOUT THE ITSELF SOUL

In the first years of the reign of Manuel I Comnenus, on a deserted coast of the Propontis, Stavrakios Kladas recalls his long life. A notary and copyist himself throughout his years, having transcribed hundreds of writings of saints and eloquent men, he decides, now free, to compile his own chronology.
His pen tells the story of his life, a story of teenage loneliness and handwriting. a whirlwind of intellectual dilemmas, persecutions, loves and anxieties at the dawn of the Comnenian dynasty in the late 11th century. The life of ordinary people during the reign of the Romans, the culture of speech and image, but above all the touch of memory. All the anguish of man in one book, which not only tells the quest of the heavenly kingdom, but also commemorates the earthly life and the human soul.
Through its pages, the Byzantine Empire is reflected at the time when the threatening shadows from East and West are increasing. In the novel, court conspiracies and deadly battles do not have the first word, but the light from the lamps of the copyists, who bend over the coffers of the saints and the theses of the letters. Through its pages emerge the chief of philosophers Michael Psellos, the holy Nikitas Stithatos, scholars, monks, hagiographers… But at the center of all is the verse of an enigmatic poem and a woman, the inner garment of the hero’s soul, the garment that replaces the torturous dressing gown.
“About Soul Self” is an inner chronicle of how a copyist becomes a writer, a novel of family, adventure and freedom, about the other Byzantium. A book about the power of writing and memory, about that drive that requires us to name the things of the world from the start with our own soul as a sponsor.
ISBN 9789601698007
Pataki Publishing House
Weight 0.94
Pages 752
Dimensions 14×21
Date last printed December 2021
Date of 1st present edition October 2021
Author Zourgos Isidoros