The Quest is the story about a young boy’s dream of someday returning to his family’s home on the island of Crete. Pericles grew up listening to his grandfather tell stories of the Greek myths and life in the family’s former home. His family had come to live in Romania before Pericles was born but he is determined that someday he will go back to Crete himself. By the time Pericles is old enough to embark on his quest, Romania is in Communist hands and it is impossible to leave the country. Determined, Pericles travels on foot, alone through the mountains. Eventually he arrives in Greece, but life there isn't what he expected. The country is under a dictatorship. The people of Greece are impoverished and disillusioned. Pericles makes his way by boat to Crete, but life there isn’t as carefree as his grandfather had described. The people are suspicious and wary of strangers. What is most surprising is the shocking revelation that he learns about his grandfather. Disappointed but undeterred, Pericles leaves Crete, setting off on a new quest to make a better life for himself. Today, the stories of refugees crossing borders in search of a better, safer life make Pericles’ quest all too familiar.

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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