Petros Markaris
Petros Markaris (Greek Πέτρος Μάρκαρης, real name Petros Markarian; * January 1, 1937 in Istanbul) is a Greek writer who became internationally known for his crime novels about the investigating in Athens quirky " Commissioner Kostas Charitos ". In 2008 he was appointed president of the National Book Center ( EKEBI ).
Life and work
Petros Markaris, son of an Armenian merchant and a Greek mother, St. George's College visited in Istanbul and studied for his Matura some years in Vienna and in Stuttgart. For years he was also a Turkish citizen. Markaris speaks and writes in Greek, Turkish and German. For a long time he lives in Athens.
Before he started writing, he studied economics. He wrote several plays, including The Story of Ali Retzo, which was listed in 1971 during the military dictatorship with great success. Since the piece in Turkey plays, said the censors, it criticizes Turkey.
He called a popular Greek television crime series (anatomy of a crime ) to life and was co-author of the filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos (1991 The Suspended Step of the Stork, 1995 Ulysses' Gaze and Eternity and a Day 1998 ). He also translated several German into Greek dramas such as Goethe's Faust I and Faust II as well as Brecht's Mother Courage. Together with the Turkish director Yesim Ustaoglu he worked on the screenplay for her appeared in 2004 movie Waiting for the Clouds.
His crime novels have always also a socio-critical tendency and often play in the milieu of a arrivierten left that has lost its ideals. " Commissioner Charitos ' is both a Greek petty bourgeoisie and the average man thinks about women not too much, but at the same time his daughter and his wife is very fond of. During Obrist regime, he has participated in torture as a police candidate, for which he is ashamed; now he cultivates with one of the former victim a close but burdened by guilt friendship. His superiors he shows himself submissive, but in the investigation of his cases he acts without hesitation against their instructions. The crimes committed against marginalized groups crimes he pursued persistently, even though he is prejudiced against them. "Against two things in life I have an unconquerable aversion. Against Racism and Black " (. Charitos in moths ) In his spare time Charitos reads almost exclusively lexicons.
The Autobiography of Markaris was published in 2008 in German translation at the Zurich Diogenes Verlag under the title of " repeat offenders. A life between Istanbul, Vienna and Athens. "
Works
The Kostas - Charitos novels
- Moth, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2001 ISBN 3-257-06287-7.
- Live, German by Michaela Prinzinger! ; Zurich: Diogenes, 2004 ISBN 3-257-06391-1.
- The major shareholder, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2007 ISBN 3-257-06574-4.
- The nurse, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: . Diogenes 2009 ISBN 978-3-257-06696-8 ( The German edition contains a new chapter that was added at the request of the publisher by the author at the end).
- Bad loans, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2011 ISBN 978-3-257-06793-4.
- Payday German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2012 ISBN 978-3-257-06841-2.
- Billing; Zurich: Diogenes, 2013 ISBN 978-3-257-06873-3.
Other works
- 2004 Η Αθήνα πρωτεύουσα των Βαλκανίων (stories, including with Commissioner Kostas Charitos ) Balkan Blues, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2005 ISBN 3-257-06488-8.
- A repeat offender lives between Athens, Vienna and Istanbul, German by Michaela Prinzinger; Zurich: Diogenes, 2008 ISBN 3-257-06639-2.