Organized by the Consulate General of Greece in Vancouver and EUNIC Canada-Vancouver, in collaboration with the Vancouver Public Library.

The next EU Book Club meeting will be moderated by Sophia Karasouli-Milobar (VPL) and Eirini Kotsovili (SFU - SNF CHS), on the Greek novel Land of Aeolia by Ilias Venezis. 

The Book

His texts are known to be an amalgamation of fact and fiction; bringing first hand experiences into the text; documenting the folklore, preserving descriptions of way of life, of landscapes, as they once were; creating profiles of people - echoing a historical period before 1914; reflecting on the experiences, the trauma of refugees. Literary scholars such as Peter Mackridge and Stamatis Philippidis have reflected on the given text and its author, the latter having created: “the mythology of Greek levendia [heroism]” (Philippidis 1997:81), and a blend of “present and past […] fused in a timeless and unchanging tradition” (Hirschon 2003: 235-45).

“Part novel, part fairy tale, part memoir, Land of Aeolia, in the voice of Petros, a young boy, tells of the adventures he and his sisters have over a number of summers spent with their grandparents in a hinterland of Anatolia in the shadow of the Kimindenia mountains. The fairy tales handed down by his grandmother, the stories of passing travellers, and his own close observations of the animals and trees, mountains and river, combine in his imagination to make a fully sentient world.

And as in fairy tales, drops of blood can speak, eels fall in love, the forest can move. Stories within stories contain ferocious bandits, melancholy camel drivers and a terrifying mermaid, while even the “real” world is populated with swashbuckling smugglers and a pint-sized ghost.” 

The Author

Celebrated author, Ilias Venezis (real name Ilias Mellos, 1904-73), was born in Aivali (Asia Minor coast)., which he was forced to leave, becoming a refugee in the aftermath of the Greco-Turkish war and Asia Minor disaster; he subsequently lived in the island of Lesvos and Athens, Greece. His major novels are about his life in Asia Minor: Aeolian Land (or, Land of Aeolia) describes the lost Eden of his childhood summers; Number 31328, the traumatic experiences of violence for prisoners of war and displacement (which he experienced himself); Tranquility, the struggle to adjust to living in a new environment, drawn from life experiences while in Greece.

After the war, Venezis continued to write in his free time, while working in a bank; he also contributed to important Greek newspapers (ex. Acropolis). He received critical acclaim for his literary works and became a member the Academy of Athens. His works have been translated in several languages and continue to attract scholarly attention in terms of memory, history and identity in the Aegean.  

Copies available in English and Greek :