The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki’s Reading Club welcomes author Ismini Kariotaki to discuss her award-winning novel Fygodikos den imoun (I Was Not a Fugitive), published by Potamos Editions.
A few words about the author:
Ismini Kariotaki was born in Ioannina in 1947. She studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and scenography at the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris. She worked as an architect in Paris (at Y. Kandelis' office) and in Athens (focusing on the protection and management of coastal and riverbank areas). She also worked as a scenographer in theater and cinema in Athens and acted in the film Karkalou by Stavros Tornes. Since 1997, she has been actively involved in painting and writing. She has held eleven painting exhibitions (both solo and group shows). She has written seven books: The Robbers of the Anthology of Black Humor (novel, Potamos Publications, 2020), Without a Taxi Meter (novella, Rodakio Editions, 2019), On the Streets (novel, Rodakio Editions, 2017), Attempted Meeting (novella, Rodakio Editions, 2011), Transformation, Pumping Station, Gialova (chronicle, Rodakio Editions, 2005), The Island (Rodakio Editions, 2001), In Darkness and Light My Soul Rows (Rodakio Editions, 1997). Her novel Fugitive I Was Not won the State Award for Best Novel in 2023.
A few words about the book:
In the central square of a northern Greek town, the sculpted statue of Her Majesty, the Queen of the Hellenes, has been taken down. In its place, on the billboard of the town's first cinema, Zoe Laskari poses nude, starring in the film The Downhill. This historical and temporal coincidence weaves together the lives and fates of the book’s characters. The town is in the North. The house is stone-built: rooted in the earth. The residents are deeply rooted in their obsessions. The laurel tree, tall and sturdy, is rooted in the garden. The night is one, and it’s August. There are two visitors: a man and a woman, lovers. The man is a fugitive. The woman brought him here. The town, the house, and its residents are unknown to him. No one awaits him, no one knows him; every stone seems to hunt him, and every resident is like red-hot iron to him. And the woman is locked in her room. Will she come out and knock on his door in the night? One of them must speak first at all costs, or their relationship will explode like a powder keg. Dawn is breaking. The sun is brand new, the clouds are racing, and the roads unfold. The mansion gazes into the eyes of both residents and visitors, awaiting their response: Will they reconcile, or will they remain strangers?
