The Maze - Tapa blanda

Anatolia, 1922. A retreating Greek brigade has lost its way. Pursued by a Turkish army seeking vengeance for three years of Greek occupation, and commanded by a brigadier with a passion for Greek mythology and an addiction to morphia, the brigade's only chance of salvation is to reach the Mediterranean coast and sail home. As the army wanders through the Anatolian desert, their internal divisions become more pronounced and their dementias more florid. Eventually they reach a small town, up until now untouched by the war, which is run by a simple-minded mayor and is peopled by a gallery of wonderfully strange characters. When the soldiers leave at last, a tragedy has taken place and the town has changed forever.

Panos Karnezis was born in Greece in 1967. He came to England in 1992 to study engineering, and worked in industry before starting to write. He was awarded an MA in Creative Writing by the University of East Anglia. His first book, Little Infamies, was published in 2002. He lives in London.