A modernist, picaresque epic, Junkermann recounts the life and times of its titular character, a hedonistic Finnish nobleman with a chequered past who serves as a Cossack guard in the Czar’s army, flees the Bolshevik revolution, and seeks his fortune as he travels through Constantinople and finally settles in Greece. Set in the social and political turbulence of the interwar period, Vasily Karlovich Junkermann’s fortunes reflect both the opportunities and dilemmas of the time. An unscrupulous character, he climbs with singular determination to the top of Athens’ social ladder while vacillating between an impossible love for Voula, a young woman engaged to someone else, and his overwhelming attraction to the dangerous Dina.

Compared to Fitzgerald’s Great Gatsby, the novel explores similar themes of society and class; love, marriage, and concepts of value; changing notions of masculinity and honour; and the role of memory and the past. Written with Karagatsis’ characteristic irreverence, humour, and eye for the beauties of the Greek landscape, the novel provides a nuanced portrait of the myth of the self-made man—from a Greek perspective.