A Greek novel about a young girl during the country’s 1967 coup will be the focus of a joint Greek-Canadian discussion next week in Vancouver.
The Consulate General of Greece in Vancouver along with European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) Canada-Vancouver, in collaboration with the Hellenic Community of Vancouver, have organized the next EU Book Club Event for March 20 at 6 p.m.
The event will be moderated by Dr Eirini Kotsovili, Professor at the Centre for Hellenic Studies program of Simon Fraser University.
Fool’s Gold: by author Maro Douka
The heroine of the Greek novel ‘Fool’s Gold’ by author Maro Douka, is Myrsini Panayotou, an Athenian girl about to start university, who learns of the coup d’etat that brought to power the infamous dictatorship of the ‘Colonels’ in her country in the early hours of Friday, 21 April 1967.
Myrsini, the child of a well-to-do family, eagerly joins the underground resistance and finds herself having the same interests and causes with characters whose backgrounds are very different to her own.
After a failed love affair she gets engaged to George, a political prisoner, only to find her human instincts increasingly difficult to reconcile with her idealistic philosophy once he is released.
The story moves towards its climax as Myrsini becomes involved in the bloody events of 17 November 1973, when tanks were used to evict students from the Athens Polytechnic.
At the same time the fortunes of Myrsini’s family form a backdrop at once touching and bizarre to an impressionable girl’s unflinching search for a true identity, both for herself and for her country.
Maro Douka – The author
Maro Douka is one of Greece’s top-selling novelists. She is member of the Hellenic Authors’ Society and has received numerous international prizes in recognition of her works and contribution in literature.
These include the Balkanika Prize of Literature, the Nikos Kazantzakis Prize of the Municipality of Heraklion, the Greek State Prize for Literature, the Kostas and Eleni Ouranis Prize of the Academy of Athens and the Cavafy Prize. Douka studied history and archaeology at the University of Athens.
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