Ersi Sotiropoulos: What’s Left of the Night (With Sam Sacks)

Doors open 30 minutes before the start of the event.

Ersi Sotiropoulos shares and signs her What’s Left of the Night, her acclaimed novel of the invention of a poet.

In June 1897, the young Constantine Cavafy arrives in Paris on the last stop of a long European tour, a trip that will deeply shape his future and push him toward his poetic inclination. With this lyrical novel, tinged with an hallucinatory eroticism that unfolds over three unforgettable days, celebrated Greek author Ersi Sotiropoulos depicts Cavafy in the midst of a journey of self-discovery across a continent on the brink of massive change. He is by turns exhilarated and tormented by his homosexuality; the Greek-Turkish War has ended in Greece’s defeat and humiliation; France is torn by the Dreyfus Affair, and Cavafy’s native Alexandria has surrendered to the indolent rhythms of the East. A stunning portrait of a budding author–before he became C.P. Cavafy, one of the 20th century’s greatest poets–that illuminates the complex relationship of art, life, and the erotic desires that trigger creativity.

Join us in the Rare Book Room as Ersi discusses her acclaimed work with Sam Sacks of the Wall Street Journal‘s Fiction Chronicle!