“I believe that a writer, when writing, no matter what they write, must have something to say about the world and people,” says Elena Perikleous. “There are easy and more difficult topics. Topics that need to be approached in an awakening yet comforting way, always keeping hope alive in the souls of children and teenagers.

For some more vulnerable individuals, for those less fortunate, it may seem like the stairs only go down. They may feel that they do not see the sky in their new homelands, surrounded by foreign words that they cannot or do not wish to articulate. However, somewhere there is “the lifebuoy” that will provide them with the support to hold on and survive strong and proud.

A boy, in a new homeland, in a new school, with a mother who cleans endless staircases to survive and a father who did not follow them. A boy on the autism spectrum who records how he perceives the world and people while trying to discover himself and survive amid the silence of his loneliness.

He wants to save his mother as soon as he reaches adulthood, as soon as he turns 18. He counts seconds, minutes, hours, days, and years. And it is time, both in its relativity and its stability, that gives him hope and defines his horizon.

To gain a “voice” is the main aim for the boy who does not speak. The voice as a claim and as a shift from passivity to activity and struggle. In the end, he will manage to discover himself and his “voice” through seven colorful, encapsulated stories of self-awareness:

“He had reached self-awareness. Along the way, he shared lies and truths. He fell and got back up again. He got angry and laughed. He hurt and loved. Now he knew. The blue tears had cleansed the soul from anger, loneliness, and pain...”

A lifebuoy book that strengthens mentally through creative reading and encourages interaction between the young reader and the text, highlighting interpretive and expressive multiplicity, developing empathy and acceptance, an undeniable necessity in our complex and multifaceted era.”