Ο γάμος της Λίτσας (Litsa's Marriage)

Set among the Greek community of Constantinople at the turn of the century, this novel follows the fate of Thalitsa, Litsa, a young woman of extraordinary beauty whose very presence disrupts the lives of the men around her. When two childhood friends, Zafiris and Yangos, both fall under her spell, their friendship is tested by rivalrous desire and the question of who deserves her hand. But Litsa's marriage is never simply about love: it is a transaction of social position, family honor, and economic necessity, played out against the backdrop of a community navigating modernity while clinging to tradition. Xenopoulos, a master of psychological realism, dissects the pain of unrequited love, the cruelty of social convention, and the way a single woman's beauty can become both her greatest asset and her most dangerous liability. This is a study of desire and its consequences, rendered with the keen eye for social nuance that made Xenopoulos one of Greek literature's most beloved chroniclers of bourgeois life.