Summary of Serenity
“Serenity” (also published in English as “Tranquillity”) is a novel about Greek refugees who fled Turkey in 1923. The story follows two families as they attempt to rebuild their lives in the village of Anavyssos, on the Athens Riviera, only to encounter hostility from the local population.
Reasons to read SerenityÂ
“Serenity” explores the refugee experience and the traumas and challenges that come with it. Elias Venezis, one of the most important Greek writers of the 20th century, was himself a refugee from Asia Minor. Anavyssos is now a major Greek coastal resort, but in the 1920s it was just a small village overwhelmed by Greek immigrants from Turkey. “Serenity” is the last part of a trilogy on the plight of the Anatolian refugees, following the novels “Number 31328” and “Aeolian Earth”. The novel was awarded the Greek State Prize for Literature in 1957.
Setting: Anavyssos (Greece)
Original title: Γαλήνη
Year of publication: 1939
Nr of pages: 272
