Birds of paradise

The story of an epic male friendship that blossoms on the fringes of Athens’
nightlife. A modern, uncompromising Damon and a provocatively brilliant
Pythias navigate the dark side of society: they associate with dodgy figures,
frequent brothels, not as customers but as the beloved children of the girls,
take part in wild motorcycle races, in a novel where the violence of
respectability is so masterfully mixed with the tenderness of the flowers of Evil
that all that is left for us to see is the unseen we ignore every day.
Because, as Kerouac famously said: “The only people for me are the mad
ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of
everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace
thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles…”

(translated by Aleka Samothraki).