In Amanda Michalopoulou's Why I Killed My Best Friend, a young girl named Maria is lifted from her beloved Africa and relocated to her native Greece. She struggles with the transition, hating everything about Athens: the food, the air, the school, her classmates, the language. Just as she resigns herself to misery, Anna arrives. Though Anna's refined, Parisian upbringing is the exact opposite of Maria's, the two girls instantly bond over their common foreignness, becoming inseperable in their relationship as each other's best friend, but also as each other's fiercest competition-be it in relation to boys, talents, future aspirations, or political beliefs.

From Maria and Anna's gradeschool days in 70s, post-dictatorship Greece, to their adult lives in the present, Michalopoulou charts the ups, downs, and fallings-out of the powerful self-destructive bond only true best friends can have. Simply and beautifully written, Why I Killed My Best Friend is a novel that ultimately compares and explores friendship as a political system of totalitarianism and democracy.

"Flawlessly translated, Amanda Michalopolou's WIKMBF uses the backdrop of Greek politics, radical protests, and the art world to explore the dangers and joys that come with BFFs. Or, as the narrator puts it, 'odiodsamato,' which translates roughly as 'frienemies.'"-Gary Shteyngart

I seem to have made a habit of coming across books that deserve more attention than they're getting. This one brought a lot to me: the Greek riots and political unrest, the sense of being culturally inadequate, the coming-of-age friendships that shape and paint you in more than black and white. Depression, trauma, anxiety and paranoia are all given their fair share of limelight (and, to me, they felt properly handled). Lots of pieces feel oddly specific, which leaves me wondering how much of the story is inspired by real events and people.

Hurray and thank you for choosing this book!
Enjoy :)

This was the book I received in the bookswap game - it sounds good. I didn't make it to the Greek convention, so it's great to have a little part of it here now. Thanks for sharing!