Book: 100 Days of Solitude
Author: Daphne Kapsali
Publisher: dk press
Price: £10.99 (Amazon)
Review by Joy Francis
Daphne Kapsali took a risk. She left her job, her flat and her life in London to live on a remote Greek island (Sifnos) to write. The result is 100 Days of Solitude, which is a potpourri of styles: part memoir, part journal, part travelogue, but chiefly it’s a fish out of water tale.
Actually the book started as a blog after Kapsali faced writer’s block soon after arriving in Greece. The discipline of writing a regular blog allowed her to expand it into a book, which she crowdfunded for among a captive audience who felt invested in her journey.
Although an enjoyable read, 100 Days of Solitude isn’t digestible in one go. Largely written in first person with colourful descriptions of the local characters, and her hapless attempts to adjust to living remotely (without standard London luxuries), it covers a lot of ground with humour and charm. Kapsali invites you into her world to experience her journey, warts and all.
My Family and Other Animals spring to mind as she learns navigate Sifnos and its charming inhabitants and challenging terrain. Soon after arriving she locks herself out of her humble abode, with her soup bubbling on the stove. She runs to her neighbour Vangelisa who dispatches her reluctant 40 plus year old son to assist.
Kaspali gets attached to the island’s waifs and strays in the shape of a donkey and stray cats. She relates to their hunger, pain and loneliness. But she fails to realise, until a raging storm threatens to dislodge her precarious home, that she is saddled with summer clothes, despite planning to be in Sifnos to write for 100 days. Friends and family are forced to send her relief packages with socks, leggings and other essential items as if she is in a war zone.
Her writing comes alive when she talks about the eccentric, funny and sage-like characters who inhabit the island. Like her new and short-lived friendship with Eleni who is over for the summer and helps her to acclimatise. Or one of the many father figures, such as Nikos, who’s organic farm she is allowed to regularly raid while he reassures her that she is on the right path.
Then there is the frustration, terror and especially fear that she is a fraud, not a writer. That somehow she has made a huge miscalculation in believing a book with arrive at the end of 100 days. This is all the more amplified when her online readers and supporters consistently pledge money for the book to happen.
“So maybe I’m an imposter…in that I’ve manage to pull this off so far; I did it yesterday and I’ll do it today, but maybe tomorrow the words will not allow me to claim them for my own, and I will write something that no one wants to read. Or I will write nothing at all.”
100 Days is almost a confessional. It shows you the beauty and despair of trying to honour your creativity while being your own worst enemy. Kapsali also doesn’t shield us from her deep lows, and reveals the tough journey behind the journey to Sifnos, including prejudice.
This is a must read for anyone contemplating writing their first blog or book, or those on the verge of self publishing. A tad too long, 100 Days is full of laugh out loud funny moments and you’ll warm to Kapsali and Sifnos.
A flawed, inspiring and brave book.