I decided to write "Blind Pig on Second Avenue" when I read Uncle Lee's memoirs, published in Russian in 1963. In the book titled "Left Pleurisy: Memories of an American Red" — which could have the subtitle "The Romance of American Communism" or something similar — Lee Phillips, formerly Elias Philippopoulos, narrates his life from 1918, when he took the ship to America, until 1961, when he left Memphis, Tennessee, to settle in his beloved Moscow.

I wrote a few pages every night on the way to California, where I went to meet my brother Paddy, and then in Montana, where I traveled just to see how Mary Kay was twenty years later. The manuscript — three hundred and twenty pages typed, with smudges and erasures — I had placed in the glove compartment of the station wagon among various small items: a flashlight, a pair of woolen gloves, the car registration, and two traffic tickets for speeding. And I would have forgotten it there if I hadn't gone back to Memphis, to Harry White's lot, to trade the station wagon for an old Oldsmobile.

No one asked me to narrate the story of the Phillips and our city, Memphis, Tennessee. No one asked me not to narrate it. So, I narrated this true story that is full of lies.

• Genre: Novel
• Atmosphere: A vivid chronicle of a Greek immigrant family in 20th-century America, with humor and historical references.

• For the skillful handling of long time periods without tiring the reader.
• For the contrasting and vivid characters that you feel like you know.
• For S. Triantafyllou's ability to combine history with pop culture and social observation.

Soti Triantafyllou was born in Athens in 1957. With studies in pharmacy, history, and cultures in Paris and New York, as well as in French literature in Athens, she holds a doctorate in American History and Urban History. She has also completed postdoctoral studies in the philosophy of mathematics and international relations. Triantafyllou is a prolific author with many successful publications of novels, novellas, essays, and books for children and young adults. Additionally, she is involved in translations from four languages and writes for the press, offering a broad and deep cultivation in Greek literature.