Gregory

and Other Stories

By: Panos Ioannides

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

His Cyprus is a landscape made up of sleeper-agents and spies, of morally confused executioners and slippery leaders. His stories stretch back hundreds, sometimes thousands of years, and yet they always tackle contemporary themes. This collection deserves to spread its wings and travel much further than the sandy shores of the island of Cyprus. Because despite the highly localised nature of these stories, the themes are universal, just like Homer’s. - A J Kirby, The Short Review The prose works of P.I. reveal a serious, multifarious, mature writer who puts his country on the contemporary literary map. - Sylvia Tankel, Short Story International, New York The work of P.I., the best known Cypriot prose writer, carries a penetrating sense of external anxiety and inner guilt. - Nik Skins & Mike Theodoulou, The Guardian, London A translation of twelve award winning short stories and novellas. Gregory, The Bath, Uniforms, The Suitcase and The Escape have been adapted for the theater by the author and staged in theaters in Cyprus, Greece, England, USA and Germany, whereas all the short stories have been included in prestigious anthologies such as Short Story International, Sudden Fiction and others. Contents Vagabond Street | Gregory | Beehives | The Bath | Festival of the Full Moon | Cinyras | Gregorios and Efthymios | Kypriani | Uniforms | The Suitcase | The Escape | The Unseen Aspect

CINYRAS

Mighty King and Great High Priest, Cinyras the Paphian! Or: How Sacred Prostitution, deceitful diplomacy, and ruthless exploitation of the people’s religiosity and patriotism gave him omnipotence, glory and immortality. Cinyras who, according to Homer, gave Agamemnon the legendary shield, King and High Priest of Paphos, mystic and solicitor of sacred prostitution who - through deceit, duplicitous diplomacy and ruthless exploitation of the people’s religiosity and patriotism - became omnipotent in life and in death.

GREGORIOS AND EFTHYMIOS

A St. Bartholomew night of massacre carried out in Medieval Cyprus by edict of the Pope and of the Vatican. A satanic intrigue masterminded by the Pope and the Vatican led to a bloodbath and the mutual annihilation of the military Orders of the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitallers in enslaved Medieval Cyprus. Long before Dan Brown discovered and revealed The Da Vinci Code...

KYPRIANI

Slave woman and wet nurse, Kypriani exacts revenge on the Ottoman invaders and occupiers of her homeland, Venetian Cyprus of the Middle Ages, by spreading leprosy to newborns during breastfeeding.

GREGORY

The friendship, which develops between a group of EOKA guerrilla fighters and their British hostage Gregory, does not prevent them from executing him when the order arrives. Yet ignoring the order to place his body on public display, as an example, they bury their friend and victim. The short story has been translated and published in dozens of languages​​, including Braille.

VAGABOND STREET

Vagabond Street, a road and sanctuary inhabited only by people incurably damaged by war.

THE UNIFORMS

Can uniforms worn as camouflage, at a moment of deadly peril, by two young people from enemy camps - a young Turkish woman and a Greek Cypriot soldier – magically transform them into siblings, or mother and son? The answer given in the story is a poignant “yes”.

THE UNSEEN ASPECT

An old refugee from Lapithos, Cyprus, and his granddaughter, live on a wasteland, a place of skulls, locked in an epic and tragic struggle with nature, in a defeat and a victory reminiscent of Hemingway’s classic novel “The Old Man and the Sea.” The short story has been translated into dozens of languages including Chinese. The stories of P.I., at a striking, harsh crossroads, mingle art with life. - Tatiana Gritsi-Milliex, writer and critic