Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Books by Maria Strani-Potts







When The Sun Goes Down, Island Stories (Amazon Kindle E-Book)

From Amazon.com:

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Short story brilliance; long-term talent January 1, 2013
Format:Kindle Edition
I still treasure her 'Cat of Portovecchio' as one of the most stunning novels I have read. Barely fiction for the pulses it taps; I live in Corfu and it opened my eyes and heart to my paradise home.

This collection is short stories and her pacing is spot-on. I've worked in the book business and touted short stories by famed novelists who just haven't pulled it off in the challenging discipline of condensing it down.

The PR puff talks of capturing 'the atmosphere and distinctive character of several different islands in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic.' Piffle. No 'capture' about it; you are right there. As with the best movie scores, you dont notice the 'capture', you've been transported to the writer's world.

SWIMMING IN BERMUDA: tourist meets local. They talk in perfect pitch, Strani-Potts nailing the patois and the poshois. Like an onion, dark truths unpeel.

REHEARSING I DO: light-as-a-soufflé humour set on a French island, letting the deft words do the humour, nothing rammed down the writer's gullet. Wouldnt be surprised if readers who didnt 'get it' read this right thru, still enjoyed it, and wondered what had glided over their heads.

THE EXPLOITATION OF PANOREA: familiar to all who read 'To Poúlima tns Pavoraías', the no-punches-pulled exposé and battle-cry against the disgraceful desecration of our environment, in this case the jack-booted exploitation of 'an island in the Ionian'. No guesses.

ON THE BEACH: Tight and merciless. Women enjoying lulling and lolling over the usual evening ouzo; suddenly a floating corpse. In the midst of pampered leisure, Life - red (in this case, bloating) in scale and claw. A wake-up call that Strani-Potts keeps local, makes universal.

A remarkable collection. If I was handed them in separate sheaves, I'd not spot they were by the same nib. Chameleon brilliance. Mark of a bred-in-the-bone writer. Deserves to be spotted by some alert editorial assistant in one of the major houses and given the international readership Ms Potts deserves, and will achieve.
From Amazon.co.uk:

By Ofelya: When The Sun Goes Down - Island Stories (Kindle Edition):
"A unique writing style that evokes feelings of empathy, deep reflection and observes our world from a very original perspective". 20 Feb 2013

 By Mark Allen: When The Sun Goes Down - Island Stories (Kindle Edition)
"When the Sun Goes Down consists of some engaging and contrasting short stories written by the acclaimed Greek writer Maria Strani-Potts...
In On the Beach Strani-Potts is at her best. You can smell the seaweed, hear the lapping of the waves and taste the ouzo as this drama unfolds". 14 Jan 2013

On The Pimping of Panorea

"An absolute must-read", ISLAND Magazine

"I didn't just read it. I studied it closely. This story should be read by political candidates, and by all those who work in institutions and who hold any kind of power, or who hold the fate of the island in their hands", Dimitris Konidaris (Enimerosi)


On Dorset Voices (Roving Press)


Reviews of  THE CAT OF PORTOVECCHIO, CORFU TALES

‘In The Cat of Portovecchio Maria Strani-Potts has produced a genuinely charming book...The charm consists in the book's wholeness of view...the writer's generosity in letting everything in; her allowing a place for all sorts of ordinary human follies and indiscretions, for bad humour as well as good, but with a sense that what all this makes up is a picture of the way we are… She takes us inside a whole world, lovingly created, that is like no other we have been invited into, but with an eye that can be savage as well as loving. Just when we think we know some of these characters, and feel comfortable with them—too comfortable in fact—she catches them for us in a new and altogether less easy light...She has the writer's eye for detail: for the small, unnoticed aspect of a thing that makes it immediately alive to us; the writer's sense of pace, that makes time, and room in the writing, so that everything finds its place; and the writer's unsparingness that makes truth more important to her than any desire to please.’ David Malouf, 13 November 2007, Book Launch, Sydney.

‘This book enthralls with its depiction of life in Corfu in the 1950s…Maria-Strani Potts takes you back in time, so that you feel you have yourself experienced the Corfu of that era...It’s like the best bits of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin rolled into one; and if a single book deserves to be read on all Corfu’s beaches this summer, The Cat of Portovecchio must be the one” (The Corfiot, May 2008).

"Read it, it'll change your life and the way you love (and live) the Corfu idyll. ISLAND (Corfu's Lifestyle Magazine), March/April 2008.

“Maria Strani-Potts is incisive in her observations of her locale…Strani-Potts’ writing is characterized by a relentless and seductive intelligence which can be cruel, compassionate and ironically amusing- often all at the same time. She is never less than provocative. A pleasure to read and, even for Corfiots, an education” Richard Pine, The Anglo-Hellenic Review, Spring 2009.

"LIVES RIPPLE AMONG MESMERISING AROMAS:

A heady and beguiling combination of aroma, texture and colour...Strani-Potts conjures a world that assaults the senses and her affectionate descriptions of recipes and food preparation of the kind authentic to Corfu are so vivid and mesmerising, so imbued with social custom and occasion they are a unifying thread running through the fractured, passionate and often difficult lives of her characters...such vividness and sensuality...The Cat of Portovecchio is notable for its freshness, warmth and spontaneity. Strani-Potts invites us to step into the lives and over the thresholds of this island community with charm and generosity. She leaves us with a seaside village and a landscape so vibrant that it stays in the mind long after the book is closed.’

Cathy Peake, The Weekend Australian, February 09, 2008.


"Gerald Durrell used to be my eyes on Corfu, my only information about one of the legendary places of the world. I think I see it better now.

Australians who come from Greece will recognise their roots, their ancient life, in this Corfu of 50 years ago. 
Readers who know Greece from afar will see it close here.

I thank the cat, who moves through these very Greek joys and dreams, for opening my eyes"

Tony Troughear, The Newcastle Herald, Weekender Books Section, February 2008.


‘Evocative and charming...her extensive knowledge of Greek culture informs these fictional tales...it is the author's understanding of the subtleties of village life—the rhythm of the sea, religious ceremonies and unspoken rules—that is most appealing’ The Sun-Herald, 13 January 2008

‘Nourished by, and full to the marrow with delicious Corfiot spirit, but also with caustic humour and satire, in The Cat of Portovecchi: Corfu Tales Maria Strani-Potts reveals her intimate knowledge of the Corfiot mentality, customs, idiosyncrasies and ways of thinking. At first glance it's a tragic story enriched with comic elements, but Maria Strani-Potts also offers us a philosophical framework for the tragic social events which have an immediate impact on the inhabitants of the island.’

Sophia Ralli-Kathariou, Kosmos, 7 December, 2008

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