The Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports is honouring the centenary of the birth of the ‘eternal adolescent’, Antonis Samarakis, one of Greece’s most celebrated authors, by declaring 2020 ‘Antonis Samarakis Year’.

The Literature Department has scheduled a series of events in Greece and internationally to mark this anniversary year; these include the current volume.

The award-winning author (1919–2003) was a widely read and much translated Greek artist, an active citizen, and a champion of human rights.

The aim of this bilingual anniversary edition is to present the life and work of Antonis Samarakis, with a focus on the inextricable links between his writing and his social and humanitarian work, which together left their mark on the turbulent 20th century. For Antonis Samarakis died just after it had given way to the 21st, in 2003.