Dear Reader:

Arcadia, My Arcadia is an authentic fictional autobiography.

© 2004, 466 pp, ISBN 0-9754032-0-6, English Edition,
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Set in the folds of Arcadia’s grey mountains during the stone years following the country’s German Occupation and Civil War, Arcadia, My Arcadia tells the story of a country boy, Angelo Vlahos, the son of illiterate farmers, who wants to escape the dusty poverty of his nameless village and seek a better fortune in America. To obtain a visa, however, is next to impossible, unless he uses fake documents. What’s he to do? The clock is ticking away, and his destitute family is on the brink of devastation.

I know Angelo quite intimately, down to the missing hobnails of his only pair of shoes. The forces that drove him were mine too. They were the physical and emotional hungers, those two uninvited guests who had settled in our life as though they intended to stay forever. However, his story is not the epic journey of an Arcadian boy alone. His saga represents the epic chronicle of every man and woman who, unable to earn a living in their homeland, chased their dreams abroad.

© 2008, σελ. 500, ISBN 978-0-9754032-3-5, Greek Edition,
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Arcadia, My Arcadia is my tribute to all those mothers and fathers of the world who, like Angelo’s parents, endure and sacrifice daily to raise and educate their children with scarce resources and limited outside support. With this story I also wished to pay homage to those dedicated teachers who patiently and compassionately mentor the new generations and help them nurture dreams for a better tomorrow. A good teacher, like a good parent, is critical for the future development of a child. To paraphrase Henry Adams, a teacher affects eternity; one can never tell where his or her influence stops.

A Greek edition of Arcadia, My Arcadia, entitled «Ελλάδα Μου, Πατρίδα Μου», is now available. Thanks for visiting MyArcadiaBook.com. I hope you relish Arcadia, My Arcadia enough to want to gift it to friends and all others you love.

Presentation at Parnassos Literary Center, Athens.

Nicholas D. Kokonis