Set against the backdrop of a capital with few residents and low houses, Maria Karavias' book "Collateral Damage" narrates a dramatic personal story among the thousands that marked people's lives in occupied Athens during the Civil War.

Although heavily scarred by the passage of the Germans and the deadly battles of December, the capital still retains its allure. The view towards the historic mountains and the Saronic Gulf is unobstructed, and the basin is dotted with hills that were later erased by the height of apartment buildings.

The writing follows the associative flow of memory. Random incidents emerge and illuminate otherwise the faces that found themselves in the spotlight. The roots and family adventures are present.

The migration that followed the Liberation, the settling of provincial people in urban centers, a consequence of the civil war raging in the mountains, gives the childhood memories a value of testimony for a grim period of recent Greek history.