Dear Reader – Alexander Chee Curated Series of Letters

Dear
Reader:

The first
ten years of my life I moved around Greece and believed in ghosts. The line between the present and the
legend was crossed daily. My aunts and grandmothers
baked wheat for the dead, and placed food at cemeteries to nourish the spirits.
They bought shoes for mummified saints who would wear them out and every
year, at their name-day, needed replacement. They
made stockings to please Kallikantzaroi, ancient demons during the holidays.
All semireligious rituals from pre-Byz...