CHaris Tzalas

Alexandrian Haris Tzalas has gifted us with two books about the city where he was born and spent his childhood and teenage years. In "Alexandrea ad Aegyptum: Eleven Alexandrian Tales" (1995), he takes the reader on a journey through the cosmopolitan Alexandria of the Second World War era and the following decade. As a keen observer, he sees the Great City fading away along with his childhood dreams. In "Seven Days in Alexandria" (2000), now mature, the author returns to his city, enduring the nostalgic onslaught of the past while accepting the reality of the present. Between the narratives of these two books, from 1957 to the end of the 20th century, Haris Tzalas lived in Brazil, Greece, and Southern France. He also traveled to many other countries, as dictated by the demands of his profession as a maritime surveyor and his studies and research in the shipbuilding of ancient vessels, in which he specialized. Memories from this period are encapsulated in "Drunken Seas."