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The Shepherds of Shadows
Thirty-one years after masterful storyteller and prolific author Harry Mark Petrakis wrote the historical novel The Hour of the Bell—set in the first year of Greece's war of independence from the Turkish Empire—he now carries the narrative forward in his newest work, The Shepherds of Shadows. With this powerful sequel, Petrakis captures the fury and ferocity of revolution in the country that formed the bedrock of western culture. Featuring many of the characters who appeared in the earlier book, The Shepherds of Shadows depicts the horrors of war in battle scenes that echo the visceral starkness of conflict found in Homer's Iliad. The novel also includes a vivid portrayal of Lord Byron, who, through his poetry, supported the cause of Greece's fight for independence inspiring the world to provide aid and volunteers for the struggle. Byron himself traveled to Greece to join the war for liberation. Woven through the tapestry of war are stories of the love of a young guerilla fighter for a Greek girl and her child, born of a brutal rape, as well as the love of the scribe, Xanthos, for a village woman widowed by the war. There are lyrical descriptions of a village wedding and of the rituals of a village funeral. And always there is the mystical, overpowering presence of the Greek landscape and its majestic past blending reality and myth, as Petrakis creates a modern epic based on one of the most savage yet least known conflicts in European history.   .
Price: $16.47
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The Odyssey of Kostas Volakis
"Every man's life is an Odyssey: it does not matter if the body remains rooted in one place. For it is the heart and spirit that journey to Ithaca." Those words from Father Marlas, parish priest to Kostas Volakis, embody the theme of this novel, which carries Kostas and his bride, Katerina from the harsh life on Crete, to the United States, through their struggles with poverty, and through their joys and sorrows with children and grandchildren. For one of their children, Kostas feels not love, but hate, which leads inexorably to murder, and, finally, to a dramatic redemption in prison..
Price: $11.29
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Nick the Greek
In 1919 Nick Dandolos arrived in Chicago from Greece, pursuing the American dream. Instead, tempted into a high-stakes game of cards, he is driven to humiliation and defeat. From these depths he begins his painstaking mastery of the skills of gambling under the tutelage of the crafty old gambler, Nestor, who says, "If God wished to learn to gamble, he would come to me." Wreaking vengeance on the powerful gangsters who had beaten him, Nick begins a meteoric ascent that carries him through no-limit games with kings and tycoons, and, finally, gains for himself legendary status as Nick the Greek..
Price: $11.93
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Tales of the Heart: Dreams and Memories of a Lifetime
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Twilight of the Ice
The newest novel from acclaimed storyteller Harry Mark Petrakis, Twilight of the Ice is a dramatic tale of revelation and redemption set against the backdrop of the 1950s Chicago rail yards. In a classic yarn expertly balancing the realistic with the mythic, Petrakis chronicles the life of Mike Zervakis, a Greek immigrant and the last in the line of the strong, skilled railroad car icemen, in a profession becoming obsolete with the advent of modern refrigeration. After fleeing from the despotic Turkish occupation of his homeland of Crete, and then escaping from boyhood servitude in his uncle’s shabby Chicago lunchroom, Mike at last finds his calling in the craft of the ice at the Team Track, the desolate ice depot in the heart of industrial Chicago. Here, under the oppressive rule of brutal foreman Earl, and bolstered by the camaraderie of alcoholic former schoolteacher Rafer Martin, Mike carves out his fate. Mike’s icing world is populated by a rough crew of old-timers and rookies, including the stoic Polish icemen Budny and Orchowski, the buoyant and reckless Noodles, the brooding war veteran Stamps, and Mike’s young helper and surrogate son, Mendoza. This harsh world is also home to Mike’s beloved, the prostitute Reba; Rafer’s temptation incarnate, the fragile Leota; and the old iceman-turned-preacher, Israel, a man plagued with apocalyptic visions of a second ice age in which mankind’s salvation would depend upon the chosen icemen. Beset by age and a failing body, Mike yearns to find his heir, someone to whom he can pass his skill and his devotion to the craft. After finding only cold indifference among the young summer workers, he finally is introduced to the powerful young giant, S.K., a born iceman. But when S.K. carelessly causes the death of an icing veteran, old hatreds surface and Mike’s dream of a successor seems doomed. All that remains for the master iceman is a final savage struggle against his exacting taskmaster, Earl, and an even more relentless foe, the twilight of his own life..
Price: $2.00
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The Petrakis Name in History
This book is part of the Our Name in History series, a collection of fascinating facts and statistics, alongside short historical commentary, created to tell the story of previous generations who have shared this name. The information in this book is a compendium of research and data pulled from census records, military records, ships' logs, immigrant and port records, as well as other reputable sources. Topics include: - Name Meaning and Origin
- Immigration Patterns and Census Detail
- Family Lifestyles
- Military Service History
- Comprehensive Source Guide, for future research
Plus, the "Discover Your Family" section provides tools and guidance on how you can get started learning more about your own family history. About the Series Nearly 300,000 titles are currently available in the Our Name in History series, compiled from Billions of records by the world's largest online resource of family history, Ancestry.com..
Price: $29.95
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