"Ashes and Dreams": A Novel About the Asia Minor Catastrophe

Ioannis Dalezios' historical novel, "Ashes and Dreams," published by Elkystis Publications, tells a coming-of-age story set against the tragedy of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Genocide by the Young Turks.

The book follows twelve-year-old Alexandros, who loses his family and homeland in Smyrna in 1922. He is saved by a Turkish friend of his father, Mehmet, and a Greek-American nurse, Eliza.

Alexandros is taken to the quarantine station of Argosaronikos and then to Ellis Island in America, where he grows up and becomes a doctor. However, a secret from the past forces him to return to Smyrna to seek the truth.

The novel sheds light on the experience of the quarantine stations and the search for identity, against the backdrop of historical violence and hope.

The author notes that the book was written out of an inner need to illuminate an era that shaped history.