Published: November 2007
Katerina Chrysanthopoulou’s novel is about the gradual awakening of female sexuality through the violent internal conflict between biological need and social roles.
Primavera is an innovative narrative form that seeks to recreate an album of holiday snaps. Through photographs described through very explicit texts, the reader is offered a keyhole on the life of a young girl, Vera, as she matures from kindergarten age to adolescence. The holiday snaps occasionally alternate with a diary, offering snatches of intense incidents from the girl’s day to day life during winter. Between the carefree air of the holidays and the somnοlence of winter, a young life seeks through her physical urges to claim an equal place in a male-dominated world.
Written in a vibrant language,
Primavera is an exceptional novel about the rites of passage, which merits careful reading by all parents who refuse to accept the fact that their children have any sexuality. It’s also a recommended reading for young couples who have questions about aspects of their sexuality.
Primavera is an accessible, sensual novel that offers a simple yet artful narrative of the discourse between the female erotic body and society.
Praise for Primavera:
Chrysanthopoulou’s success lies in that she manages to give voice to a child and to ‘show’ –as opposed to narrate– its experiences. Filled with a dark light, the book asserts a physicality that dictates itself through its imperatives.
Eleftherotypia newspaper, “Bibliothiki”, Katerina Schina
A novel about the ‘affair’ of the vigorous erotic body with the world and their fights, reconciliations and discontents”.
Eleftherotypia newspaper, “Bibliothiki”, Ioanna Kokkini
Read more about the book and the author at the
readers guide.