Manolis

The Quest

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The Quest is the story about a young boy’s dream of someday returning to his family’s home on the island of Crete. Pericles grew up listening to his grandfather tell stories of the Greek myths and life in the family’s former home. His family had come to live in Romania before Pericles was born but he is determined that someday he will go back to Crete himself. By the time Pericles is old enough to embark on his quest, Romania is in Communist hands and it is impossible to leave the country. Determined, Pericles travels on foot, alone through the mountains. Eventually he arrives in Greece, but life there isn't what he expected. The country is under a dictatorship. The people of Greece are impoverished and disillusioned. Pericles makes his way by boat to Crete, but life there isn’t as carefree as his grandfather had described. The people are suspicious and wary of strangers. What is most surprising is the shocking revelation that he learns about his grandfather. Disappointed but undeterred, Pericles leaves Crete, setting off on a new quest to make a better life for himself. Today, the stories of refugees crossing borders in search of a better, safer life make Pericles’ quest all too familiar.

Emmanuel Aligizakis, (Manolis) is a Cretan-Canadian poet and author. He was recently appointed an honorary instructor and fellow of the International Arts Academy, and awarded a Master’s for the Arts in Literature. He emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver, and stock broker, and studied English Literature at Simon Fraser University. His articles, poems and short stories in both Greek and English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Sweden, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Australia, Jordan, Serbia and Greece. His poetry has been translated into Spanish, Romanian, Swedish, German, Hungarian, Ukrainian, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Serbian, Russian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, languages and has been published in book form or in magazines in various countries.
He now lives in White Rock, where he spends his time writing, gardening, traveling, and heading Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company which he founded in 2006 with the mission of publishing literary books.
His translation George Seferis: Collected Poems was shortlisted for the Greek National Literary Awards, the highest literary recognition of Greece. In September 2017 he was awarded the First Poetry Prize of the Mihai Eminescu International Poetry Festival, in Craiova, Romania.

ISBN 978-1-77171-283-5
Fiction
242 Pages
5.5 x 8.5
$25.95
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