Summary of NikiÂ
“Niki” is a family chronicle set against the backdrop of 20th-century Greek history. The protagonist, Niki Armaos, is the daughter of a prominent Greek communist. When she is still a baby, her father is arrested, and she goes in exile with her mother to an island in the Greek Cyclades. She grows up in Athens during the Second World War and the Greek Civil War, torn between the communist values of her parents and the right-wing views of her extended family.
Reasons to read Niki
“Niki” is a poignant novel about a young girl’s longing for personal freedom. Beyond its epic family story, the book offers readers insight into Greece’s turbulent 20th-century history, particularly the Greek Civil War that erupted after the Second World War. “Niki” won the European Book Prize (“Prix du livre européen”) in 2021 and the Greek State Prize for Literature. Christos Chomenidis partly based this novel on his own family history.
Setting: Athens & Greek Cyclades (Greece)
Original title: Νίκη
Year of publication: 2014
Nr of pages: 496
