CALL ME STRATOS: Chrysoula Georgoula in conversation with Liana Giannakopoulou

Thursday 9th Oct at 7PM
The Hellenic Centre
16-18 Paddington Street, London W1U 5AS

TICKETS: £7/£6 concession (ticket includes a drink); booking required

Call Me Stratos follows a man profoundly impacted by Greece’s financial crisis. The novel offers a powerful glimpse into the country’s recent turbulent history—from the Olympic Games to the economic collapse—highlighting the struggles of the working class.

Join us for the launch of Chrysoula Georgoula’s debut novel, followed by a discussion on modern challenges in Greece and a Q&A session.

After a dramatic divorce, and at the age of forty-two, Stratos Achtidis returns to his family home to live with his mother and brother. Humiliated and feeling isolated from family and friends, he turns to alcohol and reminisces about an over-glorified past. Through Stratos’s eyes, the reader witnesses the social and economic transformations that have shaped Greek society over the past twenty-five years. The novel explores the struggles of ordinary working-class Greeks, who have faced profound existential and financial challenges, and the resulting shifts in their way of life.

Georgoula delivers a pitch-perfect portrayal of the male psyche—particularly a certain kind of Greek male—with often brutal authenticity. Call Me Stratos is not just a compelling read; it is a powerful depiction of some of the most significant issues affecting Greek society.

The conversation will be led by Dr Liana Giannakopoulou, Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics, University of Cambridge, and the translator, Marianna Avouri, will also be present.

In collaboration with Istros books.

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Chrysoula S. Georgoula is a graduate of the School of Dentistry at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She lives and works in Galatsi. Her short story ‘The Last Licence’ was shortlisted in the competition Stories of the Station and the Train, organised by the Friends of the French Station of Alexandroupolis, and is included in the eponymous short story collection (Paratiritis Editions, 2022). Her other short stories and poems have been published in various online journals. She has released two collections: Short Narratives (short stories, Artemis Publications, 2019) and Nocturnal Conversations (a theatrical monologue, Artemis Publications, 2019). Call Me Stratos is her debut novel.

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Dr Liana Giannakopoulou teaches Modern Greek Literature in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics of the University of Cambridge. She is the author of The Power of Pygmalion. Ancient Greek Sculpture in Modern Greek Poetry (Peter Lang) and of The Parthenon in Poetry. An Anthology (in Greek, ELIA/MIET). She has also co-edited Culture and Society in Crete. From Kornaros to Kazantzakis (Cambridge Scholars 2017), a selection of papers presented at an international conference that she organized in Cambridge. She has published extensively on the poetry of major modern Greek writers (Seferis, Cavafy, Ritsos, Engonopoulos and Anghelaki-Rooke among others) and has promoted modern Greek poetry in public events at the British Museum, in Cambridge and at the Hellenic Centre. Her current research project focuses on the use of myth in the work of modern Greek women poets. She serves in the EC of the Society for Modern Greek Studies. From April 2026 she will be the Chair of the Committee for Society, Arts and Letters of the British School at Athens.