Andrew Pippos’ debut novel, ‘Lucky’s’ has been featured in The Guardian’s top 20 Australian books for 2020.
The book, centres the character of Lucky, a second-generation Chicago-born clarinet-playing Greek man who finds himself in Australia in the 50s.
‘Lucky’s’ records the hero’s adventures and struggles while he tries to escape military service by impersonating “king of swing” Benny Goodman. The storyline follows various twists and turns of fortune and highlights the role of luck and serendipity in fate.
Lucky eventually comes into money through personal tragedy, and uses it to run a successful franchise of cafe diners – the type of which were popular in the 50s and 60s in Australia.
According to The Guardian’s review, “this novel is a saga in the truest definition of that word, spanning more than 50 years of one Greek-Australian family and the rise and fall of their cafe franchise”. The novel follows characters who have their fate linked with this mini dining empire set in different time periods. Written in third person, the prose is journalistic. Its commitment is to story, and Pippos writes without embellishment or ego in a way that makes the characters pop.
“Pippos skilfully weaves multiple story threads throughout the novel – the literary fraudster; the plucky journalist; the entrepreneurial Greek man who escapes service by impersonating a famous musician – but the most memorable parts of this book are the beautifully drawn characters and its warm heart,” Brigid Delaney said about the novel that treads on family drama, true crime and the principles of Greek tragedy.