Book Presentation Event: Thrassos Kaminakis «Three Eighteen»
The first edition of THREE EIGHTEEN by Thrasos Kaminakis was sold out a few months after publication. Greek readers voted for it as one of the top ten books of its genre in Public Awards 2023, even though it had only come out in mid-November 2022, toward the end of the year for which the award was given. These are both signs of great success in the Greek market.
A little about the short stories:
The book consists of three parts and an afterword.
In Part 1, titled DELUSIONS, seven short stories demonstrate the way in which people deceive themselves when they are at their most vulnerable and face the consequences. The first part consists of a 16-year-old islander in love with his brother in a remote Mediterranean island; a university professor confessing the events of his last days after his murder; a middle-aged urban man falling victim to a sexual plot that turns him into a victimizer; two teenagers with a tragic fate and a fateful relationship; a declining sex worker and loser who meets his angel of vengeance; a grandson taking care of his eccentric grandfather; and a mature, successful lyricist who abandons her family and career for a younger bohemian lover.
In Part 2, titled DREAMS, multiple versions of dreams converse with a stifling reality. From central European suburbs to the outskirts of freezing Iceland, and from imaginary exotic islands to lonely urban apartments, the second part’s ten stories connect ghosts with living delinquents, and pets with lonely, wandering protagonists, heading toward a lyrical conclusion.
Part 3 pays homage to dysfunctional families of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. FAMILIES is its title, too. Twenty-two stories introduce us to people who wasted their lives in their attempt to belong somewhere. The narrators are actors, inmates, senior citizens, murderers, princesses, sex workers, writers, and disabled people, all connected by their dream of a happy family; a dream that looks like nothing more but a distant myth.
The afterword reveals the way in which all these stories are connected through a three-digit number that could make Pythagoras, father of Numerology, smile wryly.
Ms Anna Triantafyllou will be introducing the author to the audience.
Audience gathering: 19:30
Starting time of the event: 20:00
Free Entrance
Interview by AthensVoice: https://shorturl.at/zgvJK
Book review: https://shorturl.at/GrgO4
Other articles: https://shorturl.at/cw7rD
Speaker
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Thrassos KaminakisLearn more →Thrassos Kaminakis was born in Athens and studied Law, with postgraduate studies in Criminology and Historical Nosology in Paris, where he lived until 1992. Under the tutelage of important theorists and filmmakers such as Marc Ferro, Eric Rohmer and others, he completed his studies in Film Writing and Directing. He has also worked with Greek magazines as an editor-correspondent for international film festivals. Upon returning back to Athens, he worked in advertising and became a member of The Greek Directors Guild (GDG).
His first contact with writing was back in 1984, winning the first prize in a competition of the newspaper “Ta Nea” for his short story ‘Lemon blossoms on the railed gates’ (Λεμονανθοί στις καγκελόπορτες). With this short story, which was adapted into a theatrical play, he entered the world of theatre as a theatre director in 1998. Since then, he has written many plays.
He founded the Pocket Theatre in Athens and organized the Pocket Theatre Festival and the Story Telling Festival (2005-2014). He is the creator and director of Mikro Polytechneio in Thiseion where he teaches lyric writing, theatre and creative writing.
In 2018, his doctoral thesis “The Lazaretto of Syros” was translated from French and published. It was written during his postgraduate studies in Paris, after a thorough research in the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Ermoupolis.
Thrassos Kaminakis lives in Gazi during winter and in Ermoupolis during summer, which explains why many of the short stories in his collection have been written in Syros.