Valtinos, Thanassis

The Greek novelist and screenwriter Thanassis Valtinos was born in the village of Karatoulas, Arcadia, in the Peleponnese. He came to Athens in 1950 where he studied political science before he switched to film. He later wrote the screenplay for Theo Angelopoulos’ film Voyage to Cythera, which rendered him the prize for best screenplay at the Cannes Festival in 1984. Although Valtinos has also written plays and poetry as well as translated ancient Greek tragedies into modern Greek, he is first and foremost a novelist. He is a member of the Academy of Athens and a frequent participant at European literature festivals. Several of his books have been translated to a number of languages. He is known for his distinctive prose and the structure of his novels, something that is often mentioned by critics and academics.