He recalls with pleasure his childhood years on Aegina. These were, he said, periods of great freedom: swimming in the sea, going to the temple of Aphaia and sleeping in a room at night, himself and about a dozen children. His mother’s first book, Georges Sarri, was based on such a summer. “Treasure of Vagia”: Six boys and girls, along with a family friend, search for pounds sterling stolen by a German soldier during the occupation during their vacation to return them to their rightful owners and help a repentant criminal regain his memory.

“Thesavros tis Vagia” (published by Pataki) is such an enjoyable read that if one today meets its only protagonist and the author’s son, Alexis Karakostas, one might be troubled by questions. As to how much of the story is true, and whether he himself was revisiting the famous tank at the temple of Aphaia where the children were doing their research. And he, 70 years old, will answer that the story is completely fictional. “However, all the evidence,” he adds with some surprise, “is related to my mother’s story. Aegina, war, Greek history, mythology, nothing is accidental. And this reservoir has more to do with the unconscious.”

He is a psychiatrist himself. He lived in Paris for decades, where he started a family. However, despite his long absence, nothing in his speech other than hesitation indicates any difficulty with his mother tongue. We are sitting in a cafe in Athens, which he visits regularly, although his presence this time coincides with the first theatrical production of The Treasure of Vagia at the Alhambra Theater directed by Athanasias Kalogiannis.

Fight for the underdog

The Treasures of Vagia, like her other books, are connected with two main themes for her: the concepts of truth and mystery.

Dressed in bright colors, cheerful and presentable, Alexis Karakostas remembers reading the book as soon as it was written. He agrees that it promotes friendship, fighting for the weak, forgiveness, acceptance. And although all this occupied him in life, it happened for unknown reasons. “At first I was very worried about my relationship with my mother,” he says. “I think that The Treasure of Vagia, like her other books, for example. “Lie” is associated with two main themes for her: the concepts of truth and mystery. About the truth that must be revealed in spite of oblivion, and about the secret that remains hidden and needs to be revealed.

So truth and mystery. As if Sari’s father wanted a boyfriend. He was married to a French woman and named their little girl “Georges”, which is French for both “George” and “Georgia”. It annoyed people, but she was used to it. In Sari’s later personal notes, of course, anxiety for her own truth will also be evident. She also admitted that from a young age she hid behind various curtains, hence her involvement in the theater. “My mother was alive,” says Alexis Karakostas, “and I took it seriously, in a constant game between reality and play. In her notebook, she writes that she was constantly looking for the truth, but did not know what it was. I think the central question in Treasures of Vagia is why the pounds were stolen, where are they, which is true. He had a sense of mystery that he didn’t know where to look for. And all my life I see how she, like a bell, knocks on the glass, but she does not know why, does not know what is behind and how she will get there.

truth game

Her game with the truth cost Alexis Karakostas, he admits. Because his father, physician Marcel Caracostas, was the exact opposite (tough and precise), the result was a difficult relationship with both parents that led him to practice psychiatry. He focused on the psychology of the deaf, but if you ask him why he got there, he will hesitate and only with this shyness will tell the following: Georges Sary loved Penelope Delta’s book “The Time of the Bulgarian Assassin”, with the silent heroine Alexia; she named her son Alexis, who grew up, studied and defended his doctoral dissertation on the example of a mute child, who was taught by a 19th-century French doctor to study the transition of a person to the stage of speech; then delved into the history and psychology of the deaf, he was awarded for his research, but he was wondering what exactly he was looking for; “We say that there is no spoken word for the deaf,” the psychiatrist continues. “I also discovered that the heroine of “Delta” is, in fact, the word “A”. I was looking for something in all of this. But nothing satisfied me.”

“There was a common thread”

In the midst of the search for Alexis Karakostas, something else happened. Georges Sarri wrote “Ninette”, based on the life of her older sister. Her material was what she had heard about the life of the real Ninette, as well as her imagination, which angered her sister. Sari replied that this is how writers treat truth and lies, but Nine did not accept this. And he told her the following: their mother gave birth to Georges from another man. “At 62, my mother heard that she might not be her father’s daughter,” says Alexis Karakostas, with clear compassion in her voice. “As you can see, everything has acquired a special meaning. Ninetta died two or three years later, and my mother assumed that what she said was due to her anger. Aunt, of course, kept family records, knew the whole family history, but did not speak. I, looking through my grandfather’s diaries, discovered that my mother was born exactly nine months after her own mother returned from a vacation in France, where she had left without her husband. I don’t know what really happened. But when it all surfaced, I realized that there was a red thread starting with that “A-word” and joining my mother’s interest in something secret and the search for the truth that was tearing the family apart.

Alexis Karakostas admits that often in his life he maintains a position between wanting and not wanting to know the truth. He never asked his aunt about the truth of this revelation, and his grandmother died long ago, lost in the silent world of dementia. His mother wanted to enter this world through writing, but soon she, too, began to play the pun.

2023 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Georges Sary. The theatrical adaptation of The Treasure of Vagia at the Alhambra Theater, as well as a graphic novel adaptation of the book to be published by Patakis, are part of the anniversary celebrations.

What is the public legacy of the author? Alexis Karakostas recalls the trips she made to schools with her friend Alki Zey to promote reading. “However, there is something else that impresses me,” he concludes. “You know, I don’t have a sign that says “I am the son of Georges Sary”. But if the discussion brings it up, I’ll say it. And I experienced this countless times: I saw my mother’s book on the counter, for example, on the island, leafing through it, the saleswoman asked me: “Are you interested?”, I explained to her who I am, and she put down crying and saying: “I grew up with your mother.” It touches me very much, ”he concludes, now pouting a little himself. And before listing Sari’s works for children and adults, he once again says the phrase: “I grew up with your mother.”