I read this book with absolute passion. While it is a novel, it is truly an epic — the story of a family told through the greatest upheavals and disasters of the 20th century. Although it is set in Greece, we Ukrainians can deeply relate to this story: a narrative where global events shape your life far more than your own plans.
It is a novel about national conflicts and population displacements, fascism and communism, World War II, violence from all sides. It explores the trap of "revolutionary struggle," the dilemmas of duty versus life, and self-sacrifice versus human happiness.
The novel is called "Niki", and it was written by Christos Chomenidis, a prominent Greek writer. I was glad to meet him in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, where he traveled at the invitation of the Greek embassy and his Ukrainian publisher. We sat down at PEN Ukraine and spoke about Europe, the past, the future, freedom, war, and peace.
This is Thinking in Dark Times, a podcast series by UkraineWorld, an English-language media outlet about Ukraine.
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This podcast was made with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation. It's content is the exclusive responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the views of the International Renaissance Foundation.
