History, Politics and Dreams
This literary nonfiction book by Yannis Andricopoulos (Γιαννης Ανδρικοπουλος) takes the reader on a journey through history, politics and ideas on the strength of his personal experiences in Greece and England, the countries he views respectively as mother and wife. While factually accurate, the story is an engaging tale of dreams and doubts, illusions and disillusionment, hope and despair portrayed both poetically and also humorously. The book turns from page one into a compelling, vivid and dramatic account of the conflicting priorities and values that shape our lives.
A part of this story is taken up with people such as ex-king Constantine, Margaret Thatcher, James Callaghan, Thabo Mbeki, Indira Gandhi, Turgut Ozal, Constantinos Karamanlis, Andreas Papandreou, Giscard D’Estaing and many other leading figures whom the narrator met over the years as a journalist.
Leaving history behind, the story moves into the quandaries of our post-faith, post-ideology and post-everything world. Impelled by feelings of excitement and frustration, joy and anger or, in the case of Greece, mirth and gloom, it also highlights the need for a new, radical vision to help us resist the dispiriting cynicism of our times and face the future with confidence.
This conclusion leads the storyteller to the Greek island of Skyros where several hundred Europeans question and challenge every year our culture’s assumptions and confirm their commitment to the fundamental human priorities and values. In the heart of his own thesis is the belief that the creation of a decent society is not the job of the state but of each one of us.
‘Yannis’ honest, engaging and flamboyant voice’, one reviewer said, makes this book ‘an immensely readable work’. It is written, another reviewer stated, with the ‘clarity and sophistication of a genius’, an assessment that reminded another reviewer of some other books ‘deservedly seen as great’. ‘Every paragraph’, another pointed out, ‘contains a thought-provoking phrase’.
Yannis has published eight non-fiction books – four in Greece and another four in the UK.
History, Politics and Dreams is available through
www.amazon.com
www.gardners.com
Waterstones, WH Smith, Foyles, Barnes & Noble, The Book Depository, Blackwell Books
and also office@skyros.com