You belong somewhere

John is only fifteen years old, but his life, as narrated one night in Anthi, is full of upheavals, due to his need to belong somewhere. He, however, does not seem to fit anywhere. Growing up in Toumba, next to the PAOK stadium, with a godfather “crazy paoktzi”, it was normal to support the team. Everything changes, however, when he starts playing ball himself, in the position of goalkeeper. There he forms an opinion (“philosopher of the ball” Anthi calls him), separates himself from the crowd and chooses to follow his own path as invisible. Only luck brings him to have to take the whole school team on his back and he ceases to be invisible. At the same time he meets Antonis who, together with his sister, introduces him to the world of rock music. “Holes”. Football ceases to be his only interest, his horizons open, he becomes alienated from his old self and seeks a new identity. Grows up. A little later, his family moves to Piraeus and is forced to go to a high school where everyone is an Olympian. As a reaction, he will choose the easy solution: to stand out through his fan identity, reaching extremes he could never have imagined. Only luck brings him to have to take the whole school team on his back and he ceases to be invisible. At the same time he meets Antonis who, together with his sister, introduces him to the world of rock music. «Τρύπες». Football ceases to be his only interest, his horizons open, he becomes alienated from his old self and seeks a new identity. Grows up. A little later, his family moves to Piraeus and is forced to go to a high school where everyone is an Olympian. As a reaction, he will choose the easy solution: to stand out through his fan identity, reaching extremes he could never have imagined.”You could not fit anywhere, Giannis – in Thessaloniki you had become a foreigner and here, where you were a foreigner, you were alienated from yourself …” comments Anthi. When John reaches the bottom, when the identities he uses in order to feel that he belongs somewhere turn out to be burnt papers, when he feels his body empty and his heart empty, he decides to follow his own path. His past, however, is heavy and his actions follow him to the end. When Giannis reaches the bottom, when the identities he uses in order to feel that he belongs somewhere turn out to be burnt papers, when he feels his body empty and his heart empty, he decides to follow his own path. His past, however, is heavy and his actions follow him to the end. Written in a first-person narrative, with constant interventions by Anthi – the girl that Giannis has just met and fallen in love with and who undertakes to reveal the end to us – the novel leads the reader to the meanders of adolescent thought, where the need to join a society as a whole often conflicts with the existential need that the adolescent feels to articulate his personal speech, outside of shapes and groups. The vehicle in this conflict is, in the case of Giannis, football, his paoktziki identity and the lyrics (but also the music) from “Trypes” (and not only).