Early 1990s finds the Pekhlivanidis family, like millions of Georgian residents, suspended over the wreckage caused by the deafening collapse of the old regime. And when, all too soon, they feel defeated in the battle for survival, they take the difficult road of refuge, seeking shelter in a virtually unknown homeland. The book follows the footsteps of Levan, the family’s son, as he grows up in the slums of Athens. Trying to shake off the resentment of the “Russopontius”, he ends up at Hermes Saradakos’ Boxing School, the dark womb that will give him a second life. In this den of fear he will seek his new identity and find himself confronted with his most violent instincts. What pushes a weakened child into the darkness of hatred, under the shadow of a toxic ideology that breeds violence? A book about thwarted dreams and mortgaged lives.

Kastaniotis, 2023, 384 P.