A Sydney native, former London and Lesvos resident, Billy Cotsis has spent a lot of this decade in Latin America and abroad. He returns with a new project that captures stories he has seen, heard and experienced on those travels.
Some of the travels are documented in documentaries he has filmed in places such as Sao Paulo and Rio, Cuba and Venezuela, capturing the essence of Greek speakers. Earlier this year he produced a documentary about Port Moresby and Tatana Island in Papua New Guinea to underscore his thirst for experiencing the world.
Now back focusing on his writing, Cotsis has created the character Aristotle Roberto Carlos Smithopoulos who is as crazy and well-travelled as the name suggests. A departure from his recent offerings.
“Last year I was proudly involved with a book created and edited by Eleni Elefterias, Whose Is This Song. The book featured about ten academics and writers, unpacking Balkan nationalism and a song claimed by most Balkan nations. Some amazing names such as Dr Alfred Vincent, Professor Vrasidas Karalis and historian Costa Vertzayias; now I felt it was time to return to less academic writing, less illustrious company and more of the fun meets history style which I usually produce,” Cotsis said.
The new book is set between the Greek military Junta years and the evil Brazilian regime that ruled that country until 1985, and while that sounds heavy, most of the fiction is fun, fast paced and set to the idyllic places our hero visits.
Cotsis wrote his new book mostly from Papua New Guinea and on his travels across Latin America. It is intentionally called an “autobiography,” though the character is 100% not real. A number of characters in the book are actually real-life people, as our protagonist traverses the world, he bumps into everyone from Ronnie Biggs the Great Robber, Obama, Bon Jovi, footballer Socrates, Lula, the KKK and singer Roberto Carlos, while being chased by the evil Bolsanaro.
We meet Aristotle as a rebellious teenager from the island of Lesvos during the Junta era, who senses an opportunity for adventure. He leaves his village behind and joins the Greek military in Cyprus. The island nation was in the middle of a power struggle paving the way for an invasion from Greece and then Turkey. Aristotle barely makes it out alive thanks to the help of a Turkish-Cypriot, escaping on a vessel owned by Aristotle Onassis heading for Argentina where he hopes to become the next Onassis.
He never makes it to Argentina, ending up in Brazil after being thrown overboard by an Iranian heiress, but not before the vessel pulls into Greko speaking Bova Marina to find ouzo!
A series of crazy adventures ensues for Aristotle in Brazil involving a double murder, the killing of a puppy named JFK, and being chased by bad guys from the regime, including Bolsonaro.
Using the name Roberto Carlos given to him in Colombia by a forger, he is then inexplicably drawn in as a star footballer in LA, followed by a music career in New York where the regime looks to finally end him!
With a nod to some political and cultural commentary from the eras across a number of decades, Cotsis ensures that Aristotle takes us to a world that few know about. That world is sandwiched between two dictatorships, the Junta in Greece and the brutal military rule of Brazil, Samba parties, poverty, and corrupt officials.
Some of the stories in the book are indeed influenced by real events, although most are fiction with a splash of historical truth added in for spice over a period covering 1970-1990.
For those looking for a window into the past through a range of different cultures and speedy adventures, like a movie, Aristotle is your man.
Cotsis enthuses, “this is my eighth book involvement. I am getting it out on Amazon and the Greek Bilingual Bookshop and likely Melbourne. I have a contract with a publisher which has yet to be properly activated, so I will eventually let the book find its way to an international release by 2026. I am almost hopeless with that element of the creative world as I still have to make docos, add to my YouTube Channel and hold down a full-time job managing local economies. I love writing, the other stuff is time consuming, a distraction.”
The new book by Cotsis is thought provoking, fun and cultured. This is balanced with a sense of drama for the issues facing Greece last century from 1922 which are craftily woven in. Having written historical fictions which include Constantinople, Crystal Palace in London, and Aegean Seven who travel to Europe to take back the Stolen Marbles, this one has taken fictional travel adventures to another level.
Aristotle Roberto Carlos Smithopoulos, the adventures of, an autobiography, available on Amazon from the end of February. YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@billywood8870
