A book that manages to be as provocative as it is gorgeously written. And, though the comparisons to Lolita are definitely easy to understand, I felt this to be in a league of its own. Entrancing, thought-provoking and uncomfortable.

Agh, this is such a bummer. I was really looking forward to this one and couldn't get past the first 40 pages. Everyone enjoys a slow burn from time to time, but I just couldn't get into this one at all. I am still very thankful to the publisher and author for sending this one my way, but it just wasn't for me.

A woman spends the summer in a Greek city with a middle-aged artist and her sullen teenage daughter. It's a familiar setup—expats and intrigue in a European setting—but the romantic relationship at the center, between the 30-year-old houseguest and the 15-year-old daughter, is a new way in.

I liked Antiquity's style, its details and gestures that make up intrapersonal relationships and slow-moving summer days, the details of a Greek city. The sense of increasing unease, and the narrator's tendency to leave a lot of important things unsaid, made me think of Patricia Highsmith. The prose style also reminded me of Lena Andersson's 'Willful Disregard,' Rachel Cusk, Katie Kitamura—attentive, muted, restrained—sometimes the solemnity felt totalizing, and I wanted more dialogue between characters, more complexity outside of the narrator's own head.

Leaving Olga so opaque and unreadable felt a little frustrating while reading, but I can see the point—the only legible thing about her is her teenage behavior, and narrator's projected feelings stand uncomfortably alone.

loved the heavy 'call me by your name' vibes in this one but I think I was expecting something much different. I wanted to feel more captivated, that 'can't look away' kinda feeling, and it just didn't really ever go there for me. still, I can appreciate the experience of reading it, and think a lot of people will also be very fond of it!

thanks netgalley and catapult <3

I think this book is rightly, if not unfortunately, compared to [book:Lolita|7604]. It is a queer version of this in which you feel the same sort of unsettling feeling the entire time. It's concerned with memory, and what we take with us and leave behind, and how the present is already gone in a way. I can't say I enjoyed the narrator, nor can I say I enjoyed the winding recollections or thoughts on various things. In no way, however, does that diminish what a well written book it is, or say that it's a bad book. Just one that I didn't personally enjoy.

This book fell flat for me. I wanted steamy. I was ready for taboo. I wanted more equal character development... there are really only three characters, we couldn't get to know them all (Olga????)? Without delving into her character she's just a sex object for a predator (who doesn't ever seem to take a stance on her own behavior). The author didn't give Olga a chance to be a person. And on the note of saying only 3 characters: Josef and Alain--why are they in this book? Their appearances are disruptive and don't offer anything besides a musing or two about how friendship can be (they're all bad at it). I didn't hate this book or even necessarily dislike it--I wasn't bored reading it and I did finish it--but, like... that's it? It feels unfinished and not in the way of a cliffhanger or a vignette.

3.5 stars -- hanna johansson's debut novel 'antiquity' gives big 'call me by your name' and 'lolita' vibes, but set in a tiny town in greece. the short novel follows a lonely, unnamed woman in her 30s who, after becoming enamoured by an older artist, visits her at her summer home in ermoupoli, greece. the artist, helena, spends her summers here with her sullen teenage daughter, olga. the narrator's relationship with olga starts with jealousy but quickly morphs into one of perverse desire. this was one of those books where i couldn't tell if i liked it or not, but i still couldn't look away. the narrator's relationship to olga is obviously problematic, but through her eyes, justified. i thought the translation was great, as the prose moved well between the short vignette chapters.