Arcadia, My Arcadia
(St. Basil's Publishers)
P.O. Box 1155, Deerfield, IL 60015

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• Reviews: "Readers' Comments" =>

"Arcadia, My Arcadia is a marvelous book...It has the ability to touch our hearts with an endearing story that will long be remembered after the last page is read. Arcadia, My Arcadia is a novel that should be on everyone's reading list, and I highly recommend it."
LINDA MORELLI, Award-winning author of Fiery Surrender and Shadow of Doubt.
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"A very special story. I enjoyed it immensely. It reminds me of my dad who came from Asia Minor at the age of fifteen and became the first Greek-speaking American-trained doctor in metropolitan Boston...My very best, Nikos."
MIKE DUKAKIS, Former Governor and Presidential Nominee

"Every Greek-American reader can recognize something of his own ancestors and relatives in this epic tale, since the vast majority of immigrants came from a similar background as the central figure: a poor, rural village. It makes no difference where one's ancestral village is located--nestled among the mountains of Epirus, clinging to the stony peaks of Mani, cradled in the Aegean, or even in the fabled idyllic setting of Arcadia--the struggle to survive was the same. The underlying culture, language and religion were the same. And each immigrant had the same burning desire to succeed. For those of us whose lives were made immeasurably better by the enormous sacrifices of these determined and visionary pioneers, it is difficult sometimes to recognize the magnitude and frequency of the sacrifices made by these people. But Arcadia, My Arcadia will help bring these trials into sharp focus, offering us a clearer glimpse into the remarkable natures of our own extraordinary ancestors." MARY PAPOUTSY, Hellenic Communication Service, LLC

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"With this work, Arcadia, My Arcadia, Dr. Nicholas Kokonis has officially entered the world of literature."
VASSILIKI-MARIA GRIVITSOPOULOU, Vice-Consul, Greek Consulate, Chicago

"Nicholas Kokonis gives us a gripping account of the social context of the Greek immigrants who came to America after World War II. The fascinating story of young Angelos Vlahos is an elegantly written and deeply felt epic that will appeal to readers of all backgrounds."
CHARLES MOSKOS, Author of Greek Americans

"I enjoyed reading the book very much, and it transported me back to the simple life of Greece I love. With digital cameras available today, one can make an independent film at a very low cost, and I'd think this would be especially the case in Arcadia. I encourage you to consider trying to make a film yourself or to enlist a sympathetic young Greek filmmaker to do so on digital, especially since the beautiful scenery is such a potent force in the story. Best wishes for continued success."
MARSHALL W. MASON, Director, MEXICO

"I have started reading your book, 'seeing' it in my mind. I feel very excited with the material. Apart from its own merits as a novel, it is full of filmic possibilities... Your brief prologue in the novel is the best description that I have ever read about that era."
NIKOS FRANGHIAS, Director and Screenwriter, GREECE

"The reader identifies with Angelos who embodies many of the Greek virtues: the extreme importance of education, hard work, openness to new experiences, curiosity and self-improvement...I was moved to tears a number of times..."
HARRY C. TRIANDIS, Professor of Psychology Emeritus, University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
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2004, 466pp ISBN 0-9754032-0-6

"Nice job...It feels like a nice black and white film noir treatment." GEORGE VERAS, Film Producer, OH "I love your story." ANDY ARMSTRONG, Film Director, CA "It creates a whole new world." S.L.WISENBERG, Red Fish Studio

"Arcadia, My Arcadia is a wonderful and beautiful story, without any pretensions or falsehoods, but carrying you into a world very different from your own on the winds of Greece, and capturing the soul of a country, as well as your own, in the process."
SARAH McKEEVER, Special to Bennington Banner
Click here for full review printed in Bennington Banner, April 9, 2005

"There is a defining dichotomy, a two-way tug on the boys developing spirit, a struggle that shapes this novel: Angelos learns, at cost, that he has to emigrate but also he identifies and protects (sometimes psychologically, sometimes physically) those things he will continue to respect about his homeland. Angelos' parents represent what is worth saving in Greek life (the mother's insight about eaters proves powerful and long-lasting), but especially the father; his failed attempt to to dig a well stands as the books single most involving set-piece. This novel, in ideal form, is also very much about a sons developing insight into his father."
JOHN DOMINI, English Department, Northwestern University

"This story unfolds with literary mastery and abundant sensitiveness. No book I've read recently has dealt more eloquently with its subject. In fact, I know of no author who has written an authentic Arcadian story. Rich with metaphors and haunting moments and echoes, Arcadia, My Arcadia was hard to put down. I was caught up in the story and wanted to race to its conclusion. Greek-born Kokonis shows a great mastery of the language and excels in the evocation of place, mood and time, and the restless, deep churning of hope and endurance. As readers, we are thankful to him for offering us a thoughtful look at a way of life changed foreverI can easily imagine it in the hands of an eager screenwriter and director. It is the stuff of good film. An authentically presented coming-of-age drama and an epic tale of human endurance." (NAME WITHHELD UPON REQUEST)

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"Nice job! I like your analogy to a 'Greek Angela's Ashes.' It is very apropos. Your description of Arcadia are lovely...I care about your characters and want to know what will happen to them, and I want to know how Angelos 'escapes' the fate to which one would assume he was born."
CAROLINE DUBOIS HUTTON, Hutton & Hutton Agency

"This is an interesting story and obviously you are a fine writer."
DEVIN McINTYRE, Mary Evans Inc.

"A wonderful book in whose pages one discerns the authors adoration for his homeland. Though living abroad, the author seems closely attached to Arcadia. He generalizes the place. Arcadia could be Laconia, Ilia. All these regions met the same fate. The author does not sentimentalize as some Greek-American writers do, does not shout, nor does he act self-servingly. He simply narrates eloquently, and often dramatically. He talks nostalgically, with compassion for Angelos, Stamatoula, grandmother Calliope, Lemonitsa, the mangani, the vegetable garden, mother, father. His language is rich and potent. Let us hope that this book becomes available in Greek so that we locals could enjoy it as well.
KOSTAS FRANGOS, Journalist, Athens, Greec

"Arcadia, My Arcadia is a well-written, powerful novel. Kokonis skillfully brings to life a world in which folklore and faith intertwine to create a culture rich in traditions and fierce pride. Captivating characters, evocative scenes and intriguing symbolism result in a tale to linger over and savor. Through it all, the themes of hope and human endurance shine through to a satisfying resolution. This is a story that will haunt its readers long after they have finished it."
VIVEKA NEVELN, Managing Editor, Edgge Dining and Doing Guide

"I just finished Arcadia, My Arcadia. The last lines are a gripping finish to the story at that point in Angelos life... I re-read the last two lines of the book and again a welcome rush of emotion choked me up. I enjoyed the book immensely and applaud you. Now I want to hear more of my fathers stories. Wonderful book. Congratulations!"
JAMES A. RIGOPOULOS, Del Mar, CA

"Intelligent and well-written."
MOLLY FRIEDRICH, Aaron M. Priest Literary Agency, Inc.

"We Greeks, and Arcadians in particular, owe you gratitude, because you took the common life of our country and its scenes and made them a blessing through the literary process and projected them on the international horizon for all the world to view and admire... With multiform and dynamic nuances, your language is like an immense river, a real ocean; it has no reason to envy any great writer. The novel's structure and content comprise a very intricate literary palace of incomparable beauty." (Click here for full text in Greek.)
PHOTIS FOURNODAVLOS, Philologist, Athens, Greece

Photis Fournodavlos, translator of Arcadia, My Arcadia

Greek Edition of Arcadia, My Arcadia

"Arcadia, My Arcadia is the Greek immigrant's odyssey. Through this work, those of us non-immigrants have the opportunity to understand the making and the soul of the Greek immigrant who carries within himself the entire Greece...This well-written book, with admirable structure and plot and a rich language that is full of effective literary devices, moves the reader at once...Nikos Kokonis describes people, scenery and things with picture-perfect accuracy... Arcadia, My Arcadia is a document of life of the ordinary people of the countryside...The author, in the person of his main hero, seems to sketch out the prototype of a man who stands up against a society of profiteering, fierce cut-throat competition and moral corruption."
CONSTANTINE KOUSIOURIS, Philologist, Tripolis, Greece

 "Arcadia, My Arcadia takes us across the terrain of a young boy's hope and despair as various, surprising and lovely as the land on which Dr. Kokonis sets his story. But the land is also unyielding and stubborn, and against such land he pits the only force equal to it: Nothing less than the human spirit, which triumphs by hard work in the face of hopelessness, by goodness in the face of evil, by grace and love despite treachery and hatred."
JASON PETERS, Professor of English, Augustana College

"A well-crafted story...You have a fine writing style."
ALEXANDER KARANIKAS, Author of Hellenes and Helions, and Tillers of The Myth

Alexander Karanikas and Nicholas Kokonis

"A classic coming-of-age drama. Such material should make for rich reading, in that a stout-hearted angel and underdog always engages sympathy, and the setting offers fascinating details, presenting a timeless struggle against poverty and a now-bygone era. The story unfolds with literary mastery, good pitch and brilliant descriptive power. Kokonis psychological insights into his characters and situations is keen and enviable. Arcadia, My Arcadia is a wonderful book, particularly recommended to the younger generation as example and inspiration."
COSTAS CHARIS, Pedagogy Institute, University of Athens

"In this book I see more than a novel. Essentially, I see a document of life. The reader cannot put this book down, and then she must wonder with great anticipation what happens when the story ends and a new life for the hero begins. Its flashbacks will be outstanding in a motion picture."
IPHIGENIA BENAKI, Theater Critic and Political Scientist, Athens, Greece

"In Arcadia, My Arcadia Dr. Kokonis renders homage to a legendary land that molded and prepared the souls of many men and women for epic achievements at home and abroad, as he unsettle the 'myth of Arcadia...' He tells a very common story that is no more. Nuanced with political undertones, it is the story of another Odysseus, the poor Arcadian young villager Angelos Vlahos.

Though Dr. Kokonis writing style is more explicit than this writer would wish, I think the story holds the readers attention until the very end. Scenes such as Angelos fathers mysterious disappearance, the best climactic moment in the book, in my opinion, are really meritorious. Arcadia, My Arcadia is an authentic piece of writing."
VASSILIKI RAPTI, Greek Studies Program, University of Missouri-St. Louis

"A moving and interesting story."
PATRICIA DEMPSEY, Joni Mendez, Inc.

"Arcadia, My Arcadia is a powerful and poetic novel of a young man's coming of age. The suffering and poverty endured by Angelos and his family would be all but incomprehensible to the modern reader, except that the author explains them in unsentimental and convincing detail. Everything we take for granted had to be wrung out of the earth with every ounce of the family's strength. The death of a horse was not just sad, but a life-wrenching event that threatened to decimate the family, because they could not farm without the animal. To get an education, Angelos had to move from home to a strange town and live in the corner of someone's barn. His aspirations were often locked in a life and death conflict with his family's need for basic survival, even though his parents supported and cherished his ambitions.

Class struggle is very much present in this novel, but it is not political and the author offers no easy answers. We are given a pinhole view into a world in which there is little help for the weak and wretched, and few people outside the family circle are to be trusted. The hero grows by learning to survive in this world, losing his innocence perhaps but never sullying himself or losing our sympathy.

In spite of this, the book is not a dark one, but full of love, courage and hope. It contains a wealth of fully realized characters and incidents. The plot is well designed, fleshed out with numerous incidents that are rich and suspenseful. The writing style is spare and straightforward."
ANONYMOUS

"A lovely story..."
KATE BURKE MICIAK, The Bantam Dell Publishing Group

"I was intrigued by the writing, the scene and the voice..."
SIDNEY B. KRAMER, Mews Books Ltd

"Nikos Kokonis...writes with the authenticity of lived experience."
HILLEL BLACK, Sourcebooks, Inc.

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