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How can the short journey of a yellow autumn leaf towards the ground lead us to discover a different way of looking at our world? And yet, the combination of Michalis Moulakis’s tender text and Filippos Fotiadis’s distinctive, photographic illustrations creates a symbolic fairy tale that will introduce young readers to ideas such as life and rebirth, the perception of reality, and the balance between the forces that coexist in the world.&The author describes how the original idea for the book came about, as well as his collaboration with the illustrator: The idea for A Yellow Leaf came, in a way, literally out of the blue. I was half asleep in my bed. My eldest son, who was three years old on that distant Sunday morning, pointed to something outside the window and said, ‘The yellow leaf is falling from the tree.’ As if a secret chamber had opened in my mind, that phrase instantly revealed the whole story to me. I wrote it down as quickly as I could, for fear of forgetting it.  Philip was one of the few people to whom I showed the text. He told me he liked the story, and I asked him to illustrate it. We both agreed straight away that we didn’t want the leaf character to be depicted in a human-like way. No eyes, no little hands, no little feet. It was absolutely vital to us that the leaf looked completely natural in every illustration. The big challenge for Filippos, then, was to convey the full range of emotions experienced by the leaf throughout the story solely through the natural poses in which it is depicted.  The very distinctive visual approach we eventually settled on emerged only after the illustrations had first gone through a great many different techniques and trials. It was a project that—without exaggeration—took several years. However, the shadows and depth of the final image serve the story in a truly unique, perfectly fitting way. Read the first few pages of the book here. Join us on Thursday 8 June at 7.00 pm, to celebrate the book’s launch and view the exhibition of his original drawings at the MARTINOS exhibition space: 

On Sunday 28 May, *Kathimerini* published a very interesting article by Takis S. Papas, summarising ten conclusions (and useful lessons) he drew whilst writing his latest book, On a Tightrope: National Crises and Political Acrobatics from Trikoupis to Tsipras. We republish the text below: Like all of us in this country, which for many years now has been struggling in the throes of a crisis with no positive outcome in sight, I too have tried to understand the deeper causes of the crisis, to explain the dynamics of the current situation and to predict what lies ahead. I felt that the best – if not the only – way was to look back at the long historical past. And so I wrote a book entitled ‘On a Tightrope: National Crises and Political Acrobatics from Trikoupis to Tsipras’ (Ikaros Publications), which is based on three key observations. Firstly, that what we call a ‘crisis’ is not a single event but a spiralling sequence of many crises with an as yet unknown outcome; secondly, that the current spiral of crisis bears striking similarities to three historical crises that also took the form of a spiral or vicious circle; and, thirdly, that previous crises offer us valuable lessons that we must not allow to go to waste.The first of the aforementioned crisis spirals began with the bankruptcy of 1893 and ended with Eleftherios Venizelos’s first premiership in 1910. The second began with the Venizelist military coup of 1935 and lasted until 1952, when another military figure, Alexander Papagos, established a – certainly ultra-conservative – regime of political stability, which formed the basis of post-war economic development. The third spiral of crisis began to unfold with Georgios Papandreou’s demagogic ‘Uncompromising’ policy, until finally, following the dictatorship and the partition of Cyprus, it culminated in the establishment of our current democratic system.&I summarise ten conclusions – and some useful lessons – that I have drawn from writing this book. With four successive spirals of crisis in the space of just five 25-year periods, modern Greek political history resembles a rollercoaster. It climbs and then plunges at terrifying speed, yet none of us can imagine the final outcome. We all, however, feel a sense of vertigo. Periods of uninterrupted (relative) stability are brief, with the most significant exception being the post-dictatorship era, a fact mainly attributable to Greece’s accession to the then EEC, now the European Union. Conversely, periods of spiral crisis are exceptionally long, averaging 15 years. This, obviously, is not a good sign. The incubation stage of each spiral crisis lies within the preceding period of relative stability. Thus, the crisis of the late 19th century was primarily due to unfulfilled nationalism; the crisis that began in the 1930s was due to national division; the crisis of the 1960s has its roots in the post-civil war anti-communist regime, whilst the current crisis would not have occurred without the prevalence of populism in the post-dictatorship political system. The common feature in all the above cases is the delegitimisation of the parliamentary democratic process and, consequently, the erosion of – albeit imperfect – parliamentarism. In summary, I propose the following general interpretation: The country’s enduring political problem is that parliamentarism has never acquired universal and fully established legitimacy in our country. When the country enters a spiral of crisis, and throughout its duration, three negative developments are observed. Firstly, the succession of unsuitable leaders to power; secondly, the rapid further erosion of parliamentary institutions, mainly due to polarisation; and, thirdly, the rapid weakening of the middle classes and the rise in emigration. Of these three developments, the most crucial is ‘poor’ leadership, as political polarisation and the sense of social suffocation depend primarily on this. A way out of the crisis is always linked to new, strong and appropriate leadership. It took Eleftherios Venizelos to halt the first spiral of the crisis, Papagos to initiate a virtuous cycle of stability and growth following the second spiral, and Constantine Karamanlis to usher in the Metapolitefsi. What is most interesting is that all the above leaders shared six common characteristics. All of them (a) had a long and successful political or military background, (b) an ambitious national vision and a specific political programme, for the realisation of which (c) they created new parties which they staffed with new political personnel, (d) established a new legal and institutional framework, which (e) gained broad support from the middle classes, whilst (f) they enjoyed significant foreign political and economic support. If ‘good’ leadership is associated with emerging from crises, ‘bad’ leadership appears immediately after every ‘turning point’ in our national history, that is, precisely when the country has just achieved something significant, with disastrous consequences. Thus, following the victorious Balkan Wars, the divisive political star of King Constantine II shone brightly; after Liberation, the utterly unsuitable leadership of the Communist Party of Greece; following the so-called post-war ‘economic miracle’ the demagoguery of G. Papandreou, following the early post-dictatorship liberalism; the populism of And. Papandreou; and, following the country’s entry into the Eurozone, a whole chain of unsuitable leaderships stretching right up to the present day. If history teaches us anything, it is that the only way we will ever emerge from the crisis is by electing a leader who embodies (most of) the characteristics of ‘good’ leadership. However, the way out will again be temporary and conditional. That is why we must never forget the obvious: namely, that in a representative parliamentary democracy, leaders are elected (both in government and in opposition) by the people’s vote, that is, on our own responsibility alone. Modern Greek political history unfolds neither linearly nor cyclically. Nor is it teleologically predetermined, perhaps with a final and redemptive ‘triumph’. In the relentless reality of history, the situation in the country always unfolds as an endless loop (akin to the myth of Sisyphus) which, to be broken once and for all, requires the establishment of a liberal and consensual parliamentary democracy. Yet this has been the country’s great, enduring quest since the end of the 19th century.

On the evening of Tuesday 23 May at the Pallas Theatre in central Athens, one of the most important events in the world of books took place: the presentation of the 2017 Public Book Awards!For the fourth consecutive year, readers expressed their preferences and selected their favourite books with more than 140,000 votes. Ikaros had the pleasure of receiving two awards:In the Contemporary Greek Poetry category, Kiki Dimoula’s latest poetry collection, ‘Anotelia’, was awarded.We would like to thank Kiki Dimoula very much for her excellent collaboration, her writings, her words, and her trust over all these years.  Katerina Karidi receives the award presented to Kiki Dimoula from Eleftheria Arvanitaki.In the Greek Novel category, the award went to Eftychia Giannaki’s book *In the Back Seat*. The book marked the launch of crime fiction at Ikaros, and we thank her warmly for her trust. Her second book, featuring Inspector Haris Kokkinos, *Alcyon Days*, is already at the printers and will be released in the coming days. Eftychia Giannaki receiving her award for Best Greek Novel. We would also like to extend our warmest thanks to all the readers who singled out these two books and honoured us with their votes. The evening was hosted by Odysseas Papaspiliopoulos, and Mariza Rizou provided musical accompaniment with wonderful retro tunes. A total of 160 publishing houses took part in the competitive section of the awards, 1,300 authors and 2,200 titles, of which a total of 13 books were awarded. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

The judging panels of the literary magazine Anagnostis announced today, 9 May, the shortlisted books for the magazine’s 2017 Literary Awards, the ceremony for which will take place on Tuesday 6 June at 8.00 pm at the Benaki Museum (138 Piraeus Street).We are delighted that Antonis Papatheodoulou’s hilarious fairy tale *Tick-Tock: Clocks, time for a lesson!* (illustrated by Myrto Delivoria), has been shortlisted in the ‘Illustrated Children’s Book’ category! Find out more about the Anagnostis Awards, as well as the full list of nominated books and authors, here.