If I chose to write for children, it is because I wanted to capture the important experiences of my generation, which I fear may be forgotten when we are gone. The "Kaplani of the Showcase" is almost autobiographical and describes my childhood years in Samos.

I wrote "Petros' Big Walk" so that children could learn about the Occupation and the Resistance. "Uncle Platon" is the story of the cloth donkey, a gift from Uncle Platon to my children when we lived in Russia.

In the book "Close to the Rails," my heroine Sasha is me, albeit in a different time than that described in the book. Two distinct worlds, children and adults, who live and perceive events—small and large—differently. Everyone can fit under a Purple umbrella.

In "The Lying Grandpa," I do not write about historical events, but a contemporary story. However, Grandpa himself is History. It is the first time I write a book in which I am not somewhere within, with memories.

The book "A Child from Nowhere" is completely contemporary and contains nothing personal of mine. I loved my heroine Konstantina very much! So much that I went to Aachen, Germany, and one night when the streetlights turned on, I thought I saw her coming!

I hope you read my books and we meet on the pages.

Alki Zei