Reading Club: Stories of Your Life and Others - Εικόνα

In February, the SNFCC Reading Club continues its meetings, facilitated by writer Dimosthenis Papamarkos.

Dimosthenis Papamarkos was born in 1983 in Malesina of Locris. He studied Ancient Greek History in Athens and Oxford. He has published novels, short stories and graphic novels. In 2014, his short story collection Ghiak, which has been translated into Russian and German, earned him the Petros Haris Foundation / Academy of Athens award, as well as the award for best Short Story/Novella of the magazine Anagnostis. Papamarkos has also written theater and screenplays, and has translated classical Greek dramas for productions of the National Theater of Greece and the Athens and Epidaurus Festival. While an Onassis Artistic Research Fellow, he wrote the theatrical play Ston Koraka. He works as a content creator for projects of the Faliro House film productions company.a

On Monday, February 20, Reading Club facilitator Dimosthenis Papamarkos will welcome participants at the Book Castle, to exchange views based on the book of the month.

On Tuesday, February 28, the Reading Club’s meeting will take place online via Zoom.

February: Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang 

A miner from Elam travels to Babylon to help build a gigantic structure that aspires to connect Earth with Heaven. A man witnesses his intellect improve exponentially as a side-effect of an experimental drug he is administered to heal a brain damage he has sustained. Scientists from an “alternate” Earth, where science and technology are based on the mystic principles of the Jewish Kabbalah, find that humanity will disappear in one hundred years from their present time because of the declining fertility of the human species. In a world where the existence of Heaven and Hell is indisputable, and where angelic visitations are commonplace, an atheist is struggling to find his faith in God so that he may enter Heaven and be reunited with his late wife. A linguist deciphers the language of an alien species that visits Earth, and acquires the ability to recall memories of the future, including the death of her still unborn daughter. These are a few of the stories included in the collection Stories of Your Life and Others, and their themes show in the most emphatic way the multifariousness of Ted Chiang’s creative imagination. Despite the extensive references to mathematics, physics, linguistics, religion and mysticism, the stories are infused with a profound humanism that is palpably manifest in the development of the literary characters. Ted Chiang is thus offering us an exciting literary narrative, readily accessible to the average reader, while also uncompromising on the thought-provoking philosophical questions it is addressing. Quite rightfully then, Stories of Your Life and Others were ranked by The Guardian in its list of 100 Best Books of the 21st century.

Bio

Ted Chiang (also known as Chiang Feng-nan) was born to immigrant parents in 1967 in Port Jefferson, New York. He studied Computer Science at Brown University, and in 1989 he attended the Clarion Workshop, one of the leading creative writing workshops for aspiring science fiction and fantasy writers. In that same year, he published his debut story, “The Tower of Babylon,” in Omni magazine. By 2002, he had written six more short stories and novelettes that had been published in some of America’s leading Science Fiction literary magazines, and were then published as a collection titled Stories of Your Life and Others. Nearly two decades later, he released his second collection of short stories titled Exhalation: Stories. Despite the rather limited size of his hitherto literary production, he has already been recognized as one of the world’s leading Sci-Fi writers, as is evident by both the immense commercial success of his books, boasting translations into seventeen languages, and by the fact that almost every single story of his has been awarded, or nominated for, the most prestigious awards in the genre — indicatively, his stories have received four Nebula awards, four Hugo awards, and six Locus awards. Attesting to his work being recognized well beyond a specialized Sci-Fi audience is the fact that his book Exhalation was listed among former US President Barack Obama's list of favorite books for 2019.

 

Monday 20/02 | 18.30-20.30
NLG BOOK CASTLE

For adults | Up to 30 participants
Free admission, online preregistration required 

 

Tuesday 28/02 | 18.30-20.30
ZOOM

For adults | Up to 50 participants
Free admission, online preregistration required 

Pre-registration starts on 01/02, at 12.00
 

Facilitator: Dimosthenis Papamarkos 

To participate in the Reading Club, it is necessary for those who hold a position to have read the book of the month. (It is also useful to have it with them).

The book Stories of Your Life and Others is available in Greek from Kedros Publishers. 

As part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center's collaboration with the National Library of Greece, the book for the Reading Club has been chosen by NLG staff members.

See also

Sunday 23/10, 17:00

Reading Club: Children’s Book (7-9 years old) | The Invisible Tonino

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Saturday 29/10, 17:30

Reading Club: Children’s Book (ages 10–12) | Wonder

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Sunday 30/10, 13:00

Reading Club: Teenage Literature | Eoin Colfer, Andrew Donkin (authors), Giovanni Rigano (illustrator), Illegal

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