[{"id":18546,"title":"Astradeni","subtitle":null,"description":"\"Gradma Eleni says it's my name, Astradeni, that's to blame, because Astradeni means 'the one who binds the stars.' And who, other than a fairy creature, can bind the stars? I don't tell anyone this, of course...\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSymi, the small island near Rhodes, is where the eleven-year-old heroine of this novel grows up, until financial reasons oblige the family to move to Athens. Astradeni leaves behind a close-knit community, a natural setting that stimulates her imagination, and a rich store of traditional values in which both religion and magic lore have their place. The author lets her tell her own story with winning charm and candour in a style that allows her sensitivity and the sparkle of her intelligence to shine through.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA born storyteller, Astradeni supplies vivid details of the life and human relations on a remote Aegean island, as well as her efforts to adapt to the hard and alienating conditions of city life. For beneath the surface charm of a young girl's narrative the reader is in fact witnessing a painful process of social change, the violence done to the sense of values of individuals experiencing an abrupt transition from a traditional agrarian culture to a competitive, industrialised society of consumers.","image":"http://www.biblionet.gr/images/covers/b19158.jpg","isbn":"960-04-0483-6","isbn13":"978-960-04-0483-8","ismn":null,"issn":null,"series":{"id":895,"name":"Modern Greek Writers","books_count":37,"tsearch_vector":"'greek' 'modern' 'writers'","created_at":"2017-04-13T00:57:20.275+03:00","updated_at":"2017-04-13T00:57:20.275+03:00"},"pages":239,"publication_year":1992,"publication_place":"Αθήνα","price":"12.0","price_updated_at":"2010-07-28","cover_type":"Μαλακό εξώφυλλο","availability":"Κυκλοφορεί","format":"Βιβλίο","original_language":null,"original_title":"Αστραδενή","publisher_id":10,"extra":null,"biblionet_id":19158,"url":"https://bibliography.gr/books/astradeni.json"},{"id":18442,"title":"Achilles' fiancée","subtitle":null,"description":"The scene is Paris, sometime after the 1967 military coup in Greece. Eleni, together with a group of her friends and fellow political exiles, finds herself working as an extra in a French film: The Horror Train. It is not the first time Eleni has been caught up in a deadly drama, nor is it her first ride on a \"horror train.\" As the director waves his arms, shouting directions and re-shouting the sequence, Eleni's mind wanders to her first train ride: \"Athens-Piraeus. My first big trip by train. - You're Eleni? I'm Achilles.\u003cbr\u003eThey don't ask which Achilles. One name is enough...\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor the rest of her life, Eleni will be \"Achilles' Fiancee,\" fiancee of the guerilla leader, the brave, handsome kapetanios whose code-name is Achilles. In the demonstrations against the German occupiers of Greece, in prison where she waits for a death sentence during the post-war persecution of suspected leftists, in exile in Tashkent where the exiled Greek communists fight amongst themselves, and finally in Paris. But somewhere along the way Eleni becomes an indepentent character with a mind of her own. As she begins to doubt the slogans that she fought for when she was a blind follower of leaders like her fiance. Eleni involves us in her own private world of self-discovery. It is a woman's world, where human warmth and friendships matter more than abstract ideals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Greek word for a novel is mythistorema, a word that combines \"myth\" and \"history.\" In her story of a young woman's struggle to survive through an extraordinary period of Greek history Alki Zei has woven the threads of her own quasi-mythical life into the stuff of history. The result is a compelling and beautiful novel that opens a new window on modern Greek history.","image":"http://www.biblionet.gr/images/covers/b19054.jpg","isbn":"960-04-0480-1","isbn13":"978-960-04-0480-7","ismn":null,"issn":null,"series":{"id":895,"name":"Modern Greek Writers","books_count":37,"tsearch_vector":"'greek' 'modern' 'writers'","created_at":"2017-04-13T00:57:20.275+03:00","updated_at":"2017-04-13T00:57:20.275+03:00"},"pages":374,"publication_year":1992,"publication_place":"Αθήνα","price":"14.0","price_updated_at":"2010-07-28","cover_type":"Μαλακό εξώφυλλο","availability":"Κυκλοφορεί","format":"Βιβλίο","original_language":null,"original_title":"Η αρραβωνιαστικιά του Αχιλλέα","publisher_id":10,"extra":null,"biblionet_id":19054,"url":"https://bibliography.gr/books/achilles-fiancee.json"}]