Mimesis

In his semi-autobiographical novel published in 2003, Nikolaidis describes the people who he meets day-in and day-out and their far from city-like habits. He depicts the little Montenegrin town of Ulcinj on the Mediterranean Sea and the dilemma of his protagonist Konstantin Teofilis: Should he leave this place, which he himself finds depressing, that sits in a country that he himself finds stuck in the past, and where people vote for war criminals out of sheer poverty? The West lures with its promise of paradise, only to reveal itself to be nothing more but a limbo. Nikolaidis has given the chapters of his book the names of his favourite songs. His writing is dense, detail-laden, and atmospheric. He himself once described Mimesis as not unlike 1001 Nights: Just like Scheherazade Konstantin is playing for more time.