Greek writer N. Chryssos was awarded with the European Union Prize for Literature 2019!

Date: 
Thursday, 23 May, 2019

Born in 1972 in Athens, Nikos Chryssos (Νίκος Χρυσός) studied at the Department of Biology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and at the Department of Film Direction at the School of Cinematography ‘Lykourgos Stavrakos’. He is the owner of an old books’ store in Athens. He wrote the novels The Secret of the Last Page (Το μυστικό της τελευταίας σελίδας, Kastaniotis Editions 2009) and New Day (Καινούργια μέρα, Kastaniotis Editions 2018). In 2014 he edited the annotated revised edition of the book Unforgettable Times (Αξέχαστοι καιροί) by Lefteris Alexiou as well as the collected volume Stories of Books (Ιστορίες βιβλίων), both published by Kastaniotis Editions. Since September 2018 he has been the Vice-President of the Greek Section of the ‘International Society of Friends of Nikos Kazantzakis’ (ISFNK).

Winning Book: The New Day

The book records the adventures of a homeless group who live and die in some southern European port. The central character called Sebastian is murdered by his four mates, who remorsefully search for the deeper essence of his life and death. By delving into their shared memories, as well as his stories which are precious inheritance for them, they revivify their history in a sequence of episodes which alternate with Sebastian’s stories. Paul, one of the murderers, shaken by the savagery of the murder, becomes a mystic and a martyr, as it happened with Apostle Paul who bore the same name. His advice directs his four friends to record their memories and produce new artistic narratives endlessly. Sebastian remains, however, the great absentee. The New Day narrates the human adventure -- murder and redemption, cruelty and compassion, being at its core an allegory for the natural and the supernatural essence of narration. Publishing House: Kastaniotis Editions

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