- About Us
- Our Humans
- News & Events
- Gefyra
- Women's Weaving Collective Project
- The Geraki Weaving Collective Video Series
- Journey into the World of the Geraki Weavers
- Fotis Kontoglou鈥檚 Connection to the Village of Geraki鈥檚 Artistic Heritage
- The Link Between Ornamental Designs in Byzantine Churches and Geraki Weavings
- Embarking on the Practice of Kilim Weaving in Geraki
- Our Return to Geraki
- A Day in the Life of a Student Researcher in Geraki
- Thoughts on Geraki in the Days of the Roman Empire
- The Molyvos Connections Project
- Speaker Series
- Interviews
- Women's Weaving Collective Project
- SNF New Media Lab
- Contact
- Faculty + Staff Portal
Community, Event
Gefyra Book Club: "Niki, A Novel"
Join Gefyra for an on-line book club meeting on Saturday, May 17th at 10am for a discussion about "Niki, A Novel" by Christos Chomenidis, translated by Patricia Felisa Barbeito. The discussion will be led by Professor Sharon Gerstal, Director, UCLA SNF Hellenic Center and Dr. Eirini Kosovili, Senior Lecturer, Global Humanities, SFU.
This academic year鈥檚 book club is held in English and will feature Greek books in translation.
Book Synopsis
Born in 1938, Niki, the daughter of the deputy secretary general of the Greek Communist Party, is swept up in turmoil before her first birthday: her parents are arrested, and she joins her mother in exile on an island near Santorini. Growing up, she experiences the Italian and German invasion, the Nazi occupation, and the civil war that came after, often caught between her socialist values and those of the right-wing establishment, to which half her relatives belong. Through her memories and the stories of her family, with roots on both coasts of the Aegean Sea, Niki also tells the history of Greece and Asia Minor from the late nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth. Her remarkable tales, full of humor and verve in spite of hardship, are populated by working-class heroes, privileged elites, daring revolutionaries, and free-spirited bohemians.
Author Biography
Christos Chomenidis was born in Athens, Greece. In addition to writing novels, Chomenidis has hosted his own nationally broadcast radio show, written scripts for cinema and television, and writes a column for Greece鈥檚 largest newspaper, Ta Nea. His novel 螡颈办颈 won the 2021 European Book Prize, and his works have been translated into numerous languages.
Patricia Felisa Barbeito is Professor of American Literatures at the Rhode Island School of Design and a translator of modern Greek fiction and poetry. Her translations include Elias Maglinis鈥檚 The Interrogation, which was awarded the 2013 Modern Greek Studies Association鈥檚 Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize, M. Karagatsis鈥檚 The Great Chimera, and Amanda Michalopoulou鈥檚 God鈥檚 Wife, which was short-listed for the 2020 National Translation Award.
This program is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
The Gefyra Book Club meeting is part of , a collaborative program established by the UCLA SNF Center for the Study of Hellenic Culture and the 尤物视频 SNF Centre for Hellenic Studies with support from the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).