In The Second Advent of Zeus, Manolis’ eloquence works its way throughout the book evoking the might of Zeus and that of all the Olympians to come and rescue the world from its self-destructive path. The poet navigates around today’s condition, especially that of Greece, and by floating at times on top of the ever-rough ocean of thought and at other times by sinking deep in the dark recesses of the inhumane behaviour of modern life he manages to maintain a clear vision of what a better world could be. It isn’t with any surprise that the imagery of this book is such a marvel to contemplate on, since such poetic themes are Manolis’ specialty; this book never tires the reader, rather guides him into facing today’s human condition with uncanny clarity while at the same time leads him into the realm of an imaginary yet easily to reach world of idealism, with images crafted in a simple and direct way. The goal of this book never hides behind a mask rather it gleams before the eyes of the reader from the first page to the last.

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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