Samos, one day
collective volume
ed Library of Samos, p. 454

It’s amazing what reflexes the name of a place can evoke in any person. For some, this is the homeland, roots, a whole life. For others, it is a place of rest or even exile. Some think of mountains, seas, trees, rivers and dry rocks, as well as the faces of some people who associate them with this place. All of the above and much more – after all, human imagination is inexhaustible – you will find in the collection “Samos, once…”where collected 65 short stories around the island of the eastern Aegean. An equal number of authors, both local and non-local, contribute a story inspired by Samos so that the reader, even if he has never been to it, feels close and familiar at the end.

Because the place is not only the image that is created if you go there today. First of all, it is History: official, written, oral or simply fixed in the collective consciousness. V book we know this well, together with the architect Evpalin and his antique workers we are digging the famous trench in the bowels of the mountain. We feel the rebellious rage – and its frustration – during the Greek Revolution. We run through the plains and villages in the company of the “triple teenager” old man and his entourage in the elections of 1946. We empathize with the wife of the captain standing guard during the difficult summer of 1975. We pass other waypoints that run through the decades, up to the COVID-19 clinic of recent years.

Here, of course, not only facts based on realism (even if fictional). On the contrary, the creative imagination of the authors goes further, from the “fairy in the valley” to … Lucifer, sunbathing in the form of a charming man on the beaches of Samos. Another ubiquitous love. Sometimes young and irresistible, sometimes more mature, smooth like the sweet Sámi wine known since ancient times, but just as tasty and loved today.

Wine, food and nature. It’s amazing how many different storytellers return to the same motifs. It is said that the sense of smell is directly related to memory. Reading the stories in the volume, smells, even the most unpleasant ones, almost tickle the nose, awakening one’s own feelings. In any case, this book is not only for Samoans, but for anyone who wants to travel through its pages to a beautiful, legendary place.

The collection of short stories “Samos, one day…” will be presented this Friday, April 28, in Janos at 20:30. President of the General Council of Libraries Antonia Arakhova, authors Neoklis Galanopoulos, Eftikhia Giannaki, Elena Husni and journalist Julis Eptakoilis, who wrote the preface to the collection, will speak at the event. Musical accompaniment is provided by Zafiro Hatsifotiou on treble and Michalis Papageorgiou on piano.