THE FRATRICIDES

“He says he wants to be free. Kill him!”

 

This novel belongs to the darker side of Nikos Kazantzakis’s opus. Set on a rough and rocky village during the Greek civil war, the dominant feeling is hatred, hunger, despair. Hatred of brother for brother, Greek against Greek, Kain against Abel. But who is Kain and who is Abel?

 

An elderly priest Giannaros, is the only one able to see the impending doom. He is a robust and dignified figure, embodying Kazantzakis’s archetype of a super hero: the self-sacrificing warrior-priest. He tries to warn the villagers, but in vain. Doomed to carry on his own shoulders the knowledge of the destiny of the world as it is, he tries everything in his power to save it. He begs, he cries, he prays to God, but he is completely alone. He falls on his little Church’s floor and threatens Christ Himself that he will not be performing the ritual for the resurrection the night before Easter Sunday. He suspects, he knows that the Devil is now ruling the world, for Christ is nowhere to be seen.

 

Until the Church starts to shake…

 

“God speaks:

Whoever seeks me, finds me,

he who seeks me, knows me,

he who knows me, loves me,

he who loves me, I love.

Whom I love, I kill.”