A family saga: Christos P, failed mathematician and backgammon wiz, traces the teenage years of his mother Eleni during the dark days of the dictatorship in Greece, and tries to come to grips with Bithro, the Gypsy father that he never knew. His sister, the historian Clio --- spirit of humanity's thirst to understand the past --- harks further back, she tells the story of the beautiful Khryssa and her father Sarantos during the turmoil of the Greek war of independence against the Turks. The narrative moves from the magical bay of Pylos in the Peloponnese to the academic halls of Princeton, from the bazaars of the Middle East to Stasi's East Berlin, from the besieged Tripolitza of 1821 to the dungeons of the dictatorship, weaving a storied contemplation on chance, Greece, and revolution --- three intertwined subjects that are as essential (you can hardly understand the world without them) as they are intractable.
The author’s mathematical work often deals with the theory of probability, that is to say, with the subject of chance, an element ubiquitous in our lives and the world, and yet impossible to understand. It is as if our brain refuses to deal properly with chance. This book is, among other things, a storied contemplation of chance. Independence is one of the key concepts in the theory of probability. Two events are independent if you can safely ignore one when dealing with the other. Thank heavens for independence, thinking about the world would be impossible without it. Except that independence is a myth, it can't really exist on a planet with an atmosphere and a global economic system and an Internet. But aren't myths crucial? Much of “Independence” revolves around a whodunit – was Eleni betrayed to her torturers by Bithro, love of her life? – powered by the concept of independence.
Ultimately, independence means that every morning can be a new day – as long as we leave behind the burdens of yesterday (dictatorship, Ottoman rule, tortured mother). The only question is, can we?
The Greek press on "Independence" (Patakis, Athens, 2012):
The co-creator of «Logicomix» is coming back with a concert-like novel about love, history and submachine guns, published by Pataki. Pardon my superlatives, but I must say it: This is the Best Greek Novel of the year. Yes, in capital letters! The buzz is traveling through word of mouth from reader to reader, from circle to circle. Christos H. Papadimitriou, Professor at Harvard, MIT, Stanford and now Berkeley […] accomplishes though "Independence" the impossible: to write a great historical novel within the American tradition, albeit with a narrative of Homeric dimensions, a work of fiction as blue as the sea of Pylos, where the story begins and ends. (Stefanos Tsitsopoulos, Athens Voice)
"The dice have no memory," says the narrator of the book Christos P, and in mathematics this is called "independence." "Independence" is also the title of the latest novel by Berkeley Professor Christos Papadimitriou. (Manolis Pimplis, Ta Nea)
Moving through multiple levels of space and time, the author manages to integrate the chaotic choices of his heroes […] into an impeccably organized literary order, in which even the tiniest element seems to have been placed precisely in its correct position. A coming of age novel in which politics meets history, while mathematics provides the basis for an intense existential search.
(To Vima)
