Vic City Express

It could be happening here… or there. Today the place is Greece, wracked by a crisis that has pushed people to the brink. Two strangers meet in a train for Athens. One spews out his disgust at the foreigners and the poverty that have invaded the neighborhood he calls home, Vic City. He even has a "final solution” in mind. The other, seized by fright—or is it resignation and apathy?— squirms as his haughty silence gives way to voyeurism and political correctness. While the former, uninhibited, lashes out at the economic crisis in a violent racist rant, the latter, troubled, checks his email about the latest health treatments aimed at him and his family. Along the way, we get glimpses of the forces that have destroyed a society and left people rudderless. Author Yannis Tsirbas is a novelist and playwright born in Athens in 1976. His short stories have received national awards. Vic City Express (2013, Nefeli) was short listed for the Greek National Literature Award. He was also the co-screenwriter of the award-winning movie Amerika Square, which was based on Vic City Express. Yannis Tsirbas also lectures in Political Science and Public Administration at the University of Athens. Reviews “a small book that throws a very large shadow… (A) timely … one that’s also a convincing, localized tour of creeping fascism in Greece and the alarming conditions that are allowing it to take root.” Michael Kazepis, World Literature Today “Vic City Express is a fierce little book; tiny in size, but large in reach and impact…. Vic City Express an extraordinary example of creative fiction, (or a fictional essay), as it employs different writing styles throughout.”—The Miramichi Reader “This slim novel is a powerful inoculation against the fear that is so readily embraced in these dark and uncertain days.”—Meagan Logsdon, FOREWORD REVIEWS (Sept./Oct. 2018)