Vassilis Vassilikos

Vassilikos was born on 18 November 1934 in Kavala, in eastern Macedonia, to a family with roots on the island of Thasos, and grew up in Thessaloniki. He studied law at the University of Thessaloniki, but literature came first: his first book, Η διήγηση του Ιάσονα (The Story of Jason), appeared in 1953, when he was still a student. He also studied television direction at the Yale drama school in the United States, and in 1961 his Τριλογία (Trilogy) made his name in Greece.

In May 1963 Grigoris Lambrakis, a doctor, athlete and peace activist elected to parliament for the left, was struck down in a Thessaloniki street by men on a motorcycle three-wheeler and died a few days later. The investigation revealed links between the killers, the police and the parastate of the right. Vassilikos, who knew the city intimately, turned the case into the novel Ζ (1966).

When the colonels seized power in April 1967, he left Greece and spent seven years in exile, in Italy, France and the United States; his books were banned at home. After the return of democracy he went on living mostly abroad until 1994, but served from 1981 to 1984 as deputy director general of the state broadcaster ERT, and from 1996 to 2004 represented Greece as ambassador to UNESCO in Paris. He kept writing to the end of his long life and died on 30 November 2023, aged 89.

Ζ (1966) tells the Lambrakis story without naming him: the victim is simply «the Deputy», the city is never named, but every Greek reader recognised Thessaloniki. The novel moves like a thriller, through the eyes of witnesses, killers, police officers and journalists, and at its centre is a young investigating magistrate who refuses to bury the truth. The title is a single letter: after the murder, people painted «Ζ» on the walls of Greece, short for «ζει», «he lives». The novel was translated into many languages, and Costa-Gavras' film Z (1969), with Yves Montand, Irene Papas and Jean-Louis Trintignant, won two Oscars, for best foreign-language film and for editing.

Before Z, Vassilikos was known for a very different kind of writing. His Τριλογία (1961) gathers three short novels, Το φύλλο (The Plant), Το πηγάδι (The Well) and Τ' αγγέλιασμα (The Angel), lyrical, half-dreamlike stories of young people, growing up and loneliness. After Z he wrote dozens of novels, stories, poems, film scripts and newspaper columns, among them the satirical Γλαύκος Θρασάκης (Glafkos Thrassakis), the «biography» of an imaginary Greek writer. His prose is fast, ironic and full of journalism and memory.

The best way into Vassilikos is the film: watch Costa-Gavras' Z, then read the opening chapters of the novel in Greek. In Thessaloniki, a monument to Lambrakis stands in the city centre, near the spot where he was attacked, and his memory is kept alive every May. The letter Ζ still appears on Greek walls and placards as a sign of protest against political violence. Vassilikos' books are reprinted, and his death in 2023 was marked by tributes across the Greek press. The site's culture pages on Mikis Theodorakis, who wrote the music of the film, and on Antonis Samarakis, another novelist of political fear, continue the story.

• The title Ζ stands for «ζει», «he lives», the slogan painted on walls after Lambrakis' death.
• The novel never names Lambrakis or Thessaloniki, yet no Greek reader doubted who and where.
• The film Z, shot in Algeria because Greece was under the junta, won the Oscar for best foreign-language film for Algeria.
• He published his first book at 19 and kept writing for seventy years.