In a tour de force of innovation, memory, and distillation, Thanassis Valtinos shifts the literary ground from yet another angle. Set in a provincial capital, in the penultimate throes of the Greek Civil War, New Moon: Day One is semi-autobiographical, a tale of two protagonists on the brink of manhood. They speak in bluntly human tones, but in precincts that echo of death the impulse to life is declared. In the very presence of Thanatos,...