In memory of Vassilis Alexakis, between Greece and France

Audio 29:00

The writer Vassilis Alexakis in Paris, in 2012. AFP - BERTRAND GUAY

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

31 min

In homage to the writer Vassilis Alexakis, who died this week at the age of 77, a look back at his life, between Athens and Paris, and his work written both in his native language, Greek, and his language of adoption, French.

With the rebroadcast of a 2005 program on the occasion of the publication of his book entitled “I will forget you every day” dedicated to his mother. 

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"One day when I was having lunch alone at Democritus, you appeared at the entrance of the room and you looked attentively around you. I had finished my meal and I was reading the newspaper. Your gaze did not linger on Me, nor did he dwell on the other customers. I tried to contain my disappointment. I thought it had been twelve years since we last saw each other. "

To the ghost that appeared one afternoon in a restaurant in Athens, and who is none other than his mother, now missing, Vassilis Alexakis recounts what has happened since.

With a lot of lightness and humor, he tells the little story, his own, his loves, his children, and the big one, the Olympic games, the victory of Greece at Euro 2004, Rwanda, September 11.

He also evokes, with restraint and modesty, childhood in Greece, vacations, memories of the time when his mother still lived, thus continuing a conversation, the ultimate, with the one who gave him a taste for literature.

(Editor's presentation)

Cover of the pocket edition of Vassilis Alexakis's book © Folio / Gallimard

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