‘In the Years of the War’ is a collection of stories as told by some of the people of the villages of Diafani and Olympos in the north of the Greek island of Karpathos.
The stories are NOT about war itself but, rather, about the day-to-day lives of the local people struggling under foreign occupation between the years 1939 and 1947. They are largely verbatim transcripts of tales recounted by the locals to Manolis Makris, recalling their experiences and the hardships undergone during this period – including some amusing instances! Manolis published the entire collection, in Greek only, in his book ‘ΣΤΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΠΟΛΕΜΟΥ’.
The e-book contains just a small number of those stories, selected by Manolis Makris’ brother, Giorgos Makris, and translated into English by Giorgos in conjunction with Bob Bowden, a long-time resident of the village of Diafani.
The e-book
This e-book may be viewed on-line or downloaded as a free e-book in a number of formats:
- EPUB – compliant with the EPUB version 3 standard which can be read on most e-readers including Apple Books and many other apps for iPad/iPhone and Android such as the free Google Play Books app. The Google website books.google.com lets you read your library of e-books using any standard Internet browser on any device.
- MOBI – compatible with all Amazon Kindle e-readers and the free Amazon Kindle apps such as those available for iPad/iPhone, Android and Windows.
- PDF – can be read on any device which has the Adobe Reader installed.
This companion website
This e-book is complete in itself and can be read on any compatible e-reader without needing to connect to the Internet.
The icon appears in the e-book whenever this website provides additional information. Clicking on the icon brings you seamlessly to the relevant place on this site.This companion website also provides links to other sites, such as Wikipedia, when there is related information which may be of interest to you e.g. read about the island of Karpathos.
We hope you enjoy the e-book and the additional material presented on this website.
List of chapters
You can click on any of the chapters below to go to the companion webpage for that chapter where you will find an overview and additional information. You can also choose to read that chapter online.
- The Island of Karpathos
- The Dodecanese Regiment
- The Pigs and the Coffee Shop
- The Golden Earrings
- The Tristomo Italians
- The Blue Shirt
- The Letter to Italy
- The Money to Italy
- The Lame Mule
- A Fig for Teacher
- The Fall of Crete
- The Coming of the Germans
- A Belated Apology
- Escape to Asia Minor
- The Taking of the Men
- The Big Fire
- A Tale of Two Boats and the Cruel Turks
- Bravery in a Stormy Sea
- The Katohorites
- The Onion Pie
Interactive map of locations
The map below shows the location of the places mentioned in the chapters of the book and a short extract of the text from the book. Clicking on the link in the description will take you to that point in the online book. Read how to use the interactive map.