- 1 6 - -FICTION- Alexis Stamatis was born in Athens. He studied architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and completed postgraduate studies in architecture and cinema in London. He has written a total of thirty-five books. Among his works, his novels Bar Flaubert, Villa Combre, and his autobiographical book I Was So Many Others are particularly noteworthy. His works have been translated into nine languages. His plays have been staged in many theaters in Athens, including the National Theater and the Art Theater. Angel and the child Alexis Stamatis An isolated village where nothing ever changes. People live as their parents did, as their children will. Or so they think. Until two strangers appear: a man who offers everything without asking for anything in return, and a child who doesn’t speak. Who are they? What do they want? Whο is Angel? A benefactor or an intruder? Why does the child seem to carry a secret that no one can explain? At first, they observe them. Then they question them. And then suspicion turns to fear. The village begins to crumble—not just its houses and streets, but also the certainties that held it together. Because some arrivals don’t just bring new faces. They bring dangerous actions and questions that no one wants to answer. When change knocks on the door, it will be too late. What do we fear most? The unknown, or what it reveals about us? Pages 216 March 2025 Spyros Kiosses is assistant professor of Literary Theory and Creative Writing at the Department of Language & Intercultural Studies, University of Thessaly. He’s written five books, and has contributed scientific and critical columns as well as literary pieces to newspapers and magazines. The first rains Got a cig? Pages 176 May 2022 Pages 160 March 2024 Late 70s, early 80s: In this transitional historical period, Tasos is growing up in a workers’ neighborhood of a small city. His autofiction brings the era to life, as well as the plexus of family relations, that can be supporting as a safety net, or at times suffocating and inescapable as a spider’s web. Distant aunts, neighbours, street vendors, passengers, children, lumpen men, stray dogs: secondary characters who enjoy the spotlight for a couple of minutes, almost as much as each story lasts. “Micro-stories” – the writer describes these as “little tales for the little characters of the world”, inviting the readership to take a leap from our own little lives into the page, while lighting a cigarette.
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