ANDREW PIPPOS The Transformations. Reviewed by Linda Godfrey

The second novel from Andrew Pippos draws inspiration from the epics of ancient Greece as its characters navigate a fraught world.

Early in the story, George Desoulis reveals that his family came to Australia from Ithaka, Greece, and that their surname, Desoulis, is a variation of Odysseus. This detail signals the theme of transformation that will shape the characters’ journeys throughout the book.

George works at night as a subeditor at a newspaper – a physical space that has the atmosphere of an engine room. He spends these nights immersed in a bustling workplace filled with the energy of journalists, as if he were aboard a ship on an endless voyage.

The newsroom occupied the entire third floor of the National Building. On the wall near the lift, and on the columns that brought anchor and pattern to the open plan room, there hung framed copies of front pages, decades old: reports of disasters and notable deaths and victories in one campaign or another. Outside the conference room, seven clocks showed the time in different parts of the world. All day the newsroom was like the inside of an open microwave. Television sets fell suspended from the ceiling.

Much like Odysseus, George is a solitary figure. He works and goes home and sleeps and repeats. His ability to make connections and to love are suppressed because of trauma in his past.

In this, his story echoes that of Odysseus, who, after ten years of living in the masculine world of war, then takes ten years to journey home to his wife and family, encountering the worlds of females and goddesses on the way. George, who has isolated himself from women and any deep connections, is nearing the conclusion of his own solitary passage and must prepare to re-enter the world of relationships.

‘Is it difficult living alone?’ she [Cassandra] asked George.

‘I know how to live alone. Living with other people sounds difficult.’

‘What will you do when you go home?’

‘I’ll probably talk to my dead mother.’

‘What do you talk about?’

‘Other people mostly. Or the newspaper, or we talk about the family café.’

‘You can tell her about our conversation tonight.’

The turning points for George come in three significant events that almost simultaneously disrupt his isolated existence:

First, his former partner, Madeleine, pays him a visit to say that Elecktra, his teenage daughter, wishes to strengthen her bond with him. Madeleine had decided to raise Elecktra without George’s involvement – a wound that has lingered for George.

Then George receives an email from a schoolmate seeking information about a former teacher.

Finally, one night at work, George encounters Cassandra, another journalist.

‘Would you mind looking at something for me?’ he said.

‘Do you need a second opinion on a headline?’ she said. ‘I hate puns.’

‘I hate puns too.’

With her hands in the pockets of her grey linen dress she stood behind him and read the email, her feet touching the base of his chair …

He asks her opinion about the email he has received and she suggests they meet after work to discuss the implications.

‘Will you be at The Nobody tonight?’

‘I finish at ten-thirty.’

‘I have to attend the Sydney prize announcement. I’ll file and meet you for a drink? And we can talk about all this,’ she waved in the direction of the email. ‘Or anything you want to talk about.’

‘Who else is coming?’ he asked.

‘Would you like me to invite someone?’

George has noted that in this workplace, affairs between workers are accepted as part of their lifestyles, and so he and Cass begin an affair. Cass tells him that she and her husband, Nic, have an open relationship and she is not leaving her marriage.

They were partners but like a pair of friends who went to bed with each other and raised children and ran a household. They needed adventure, they decided, not counselling, not yet … they could dabble, play, find a solution themselves, find ways to bring newness into their marriage.

The future of the newspaper is also under threat. The owner, who had been propping it up with his own money, has died and the children who have inherited the business have to decide its future.

All of the characters have built their lives on compromises. Now, with all this upheaval, everything they held safe and secure is tossed about.

It’s a fraught world. How George, Cassandra, Nic, Elecktra and Madeleine negotiate it is the story of the transformations. The narrative is told from each of their perspectives, adding complexity and depth to the story without losing the emotional thread of George’s story arc.

It is very much its own book, even with the references to Odysseus and the name Desoulis. Cassandra was a character in The Iliad and The Odyssey, but her fate was very different to the Cassandra of this novel. Casandra of Troy, princess and seer, was cursed by Athena to always tell the truth but never be believed, and ended her life as a war trophy of Agamemnon and was killed by Clytemnestra. The Cassandra of the novel is successful, self-assured, and she does tell the truth, to George, and to Nic especially. It’s her transparency and love that wins the day. George, Elecktra and Nic are Greek names that don’t appear in The Odyssey, so there’s no need to seek convoluted connections to each character in Homer’s tale.

What The Transformations does have in common with The Odyssey is that it is a narrative about endings and the struggle for new beginnings.  Pippos offers a nuanced and insightful exploration of second-generation migrant experiences, addressing issues such as the effects of trauma, the decline of print newspapers, and the transformative impact of love.

Andrew Pippos The Transformations Picador 2025 PB 352pp $34.99

Linda Godfrey is a writer, poet, and editor living on Dharawal Country.

You can buy The Transformations from Abbey’s at a 10% discount by quoting the promotion code NEWTOWNREVIEW.

You can also check if it is available from Newtown Library.

Tags: Andrew | Pippos, Australian fiction, Cassandra, contemporary Australia, Greek mythology, The Odyssey