Greece, the birthplace of democracy, is in one of its darkest periods. A right wing government known as the Regime of Colonels is terrorizing the Greek populace. Those who dissent from government policy or action go to prison – or simply disappear. Life has been good to Petros Spathis: he has just finished his BA in Economics from the University of Athens with the highest marks in his class, and he is offered a professorship on the condition that he acquire a Master's degree from a North American university. He is also handsome and charming and catches the hearts of many women, including an Italian Canadian girl, Samantha, and a Greek beauty, Madga. Despite a job offer by the University of British Columbia and Samantha's pleading that he stay in Canada after receiving his MBA, he goes back to serve his home country. However, being an idealist, Spathis is compelled to help his students in their struggle for freedom of speech and speaks his mind about what the government should do in front of the formidable school trustee, Colonel Prodromos Alvarezos. He is dragged from his office by police and imprisoned. Petros Spathis's close friend, Colonel Stathis Vikas, uses all his power to pressure the government to release Spathis; his students stage demonstrations for his freedom, and Samantha exerts her Canadian influence to rescue him. Will Spathis be freed? Or will he be buried in an unmarked grave by the junta?

Manolis (Emmanuel Aligizakis) was born in the small village Kolibari west of Chania on the Greek island of Crete in 1947. At a young age his family moved first to Thessaloniki and then to Athens where he was educated, achieving a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Sciences at the Panteion University of Athens. He served in the armed forces for two years, and emigrated to Vancouver in 1973, where he worked in several different jobs over the years. He attended Simon Fraser University for a year, taking English Literature in a non-degree program. He has written three novels and a large number of collections of poetry, which are slowly appearing as published works. Various articles, poems and short stories in Greek as well as in English have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Canada, United States, Australia and Greece. After working as an iron worker, train labourer, taxi driver and stock broker, he now lives in White Rock where he spends his time writing, gardening and traveling. In 2006 he founded Libros Libertad, an unorthodox and independent publishing company in Surrey, BC with the goal of publishing literary books.

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Manolis writes a gripping story set in a country seeped in history, in an era when Greece was governed by a military tyranny... The story line holds the reader from a promising start to a disturbing finish.

Michael Zrymiak