REVIEW: Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos

Grand, evocative and generous storytelling mark out Lucky’s as one of the most rewarding Australian debuts of 2020. I think you’re going to love this book.

Andrew Pippos

Stretching across decades of history, this new novel is about a family coming together and falling apart, the migrant experience, a family secret, the life of a journalist, the life of a restaurateur, the life of an imposter, the Greek epic, an Australian tragedy and more.

At the heart of it all is the larger-than-life Vasilis ‘Lucky’ Mallios, a Greek-American Air Forceman and unlikely founder of a fictional restaurant franchise that took post-war Australia by storm. With the dawn of the new century, an aged Lucky is determined to start afresh long after losing everything to reckless dealings and a tragic gun massacre. But this is also the story of Emily Main, a struggling journalist whose marriage is exploding in real time, who has come to Sydney to write a major feature for The New Yorker and find answers to her own past in Australia too.

The story of Lucky’s is too epic to try and boil down further than this. You really need to go and experience it for yourself. One thing I love about this book is the episodic nature of the narrative. Rather than trying to walk the reader through seventy years of drama, the author gives us short vignettes, one after another, each a deep dive into a moment of passion, violence, love or disaster. A wild and sprawling story is rendered with precision and depth. Every page is a reward for the reader. I practically danced from one chapter to the next.

Andrew Pippos is a former print journalist and teaches at UTS. He draws from the atmosphere and characters of the real Greek-Australian cafe scene he grew up in and he’s a natural storyteller. This novel was a delight to read and I hope it will be the first of many.

—Lucky’s by Andrew Pippos (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now.

This book is part of our 2020 Christmas Gift Guide! You could win 1 Million Qantas Points when you order any product featured in our Christmas Gift Guide between 2 November and 14 December, 2020.*

*T&Cs apply.

Lucky's

by Andrew Pippos

Lucky's is a story of family. A story about migration.

It is also about a man called Lucky. His restaurant chain. A fire that changed everything. A New Yorker article which might save a career. The mystery of a missing father. An impostor who got the girl. An unthinkable tragedy.

A roll of the dice. And a story of love - lost, sought and won again (at last).

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Ben Hunter

Ben is Booktopia's dedicated fiction and children's book specialist. He spends his days painstakingly piecing together beautiful catalogue pages and gift guides for the website. At any opportunity, he loves to write warmly of the books that inspire him. If you want to talk books, find him tweeting at @itsbenhunter