Thank you to NetGalley, Natalie Bakopoulos, and Tin House Books for this arc!

“It seems appropriate I begin this story here, with a haze, a transposition, a dislocation, a movement between the borders of language and voice and home.”

Above all things, this is a novel about borders: borders between nations, between writers and translators, between how others see us and how we see ourselves, between antiquity and modernity, between memory and reality. How those connections are altered by language and shape our identities. Bakopoulos's prose is beautiful and often drifts into stream of consciousness - much in the way of Roberto Bolaño or Donna Tartt - gently steering an often amorphous plot to a cathartic conclusion.

I was moved by the quiet, transitory romance between the narrator and Luka. I was left thinking about how the trajectory of our lives shapes our capacity for vulnerability or permanence. There's something compelling about this book; I would start to think it was too meandering, and then find myself thinking all day about getting back to it.

This is not a novel I should recommend to everyone (the style might be too niche for some readers) but I'm going to do it anyway.

“Archipelago” by Natalie Bakopoulus is a dreamy, introspective novel that explores themes of identity, translation, and language. This story, reminiscent of the Odyssey, is set in Greece and follows the narrator as she returns to her family home while attending a translator's writing retreat.

The book encourages readers to consider the different roles involved in storytelling, whether as an audience, a translator, or a writer. It also examines our connections to the land and sea, as well as our relationships with both properties and other people.

Overall, this novel offers a quiet reflection on memory and engagement. I would recommend it to fans of "The Extinction of Irena Rey" by Jennifer Croft or "If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English" by Noor Naga. Many thanks to TinHouse and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy.

This is very much a book about getting lost in your identity. Going on a journey of self-discovery during an emotionally difficult part of your life and the dissection of language and how we use it to convey our feelings and identities to others.

It's whimsical in a sense that feels like a lucid dream. Natalie Bakopoulos' writing is very smooth and calming to read, the description of the world is so lush and beautiful and really transported me into the novel. Bakopoulos' ability to weave multiple narratives together is also excellent, as the novel is about a woman assuming the identity of a fictional character based on her while translating a novel at the same time--and discovering the meaning and story behind it as she translates.

Bakopoulos is certainly an author that I will be keeping an eye out for. And I'm very interested in the books that she has publish already.