Maria Iordanidou

Loxandra is a Greek mother and wife living the ordinary life of a well to-do Greek family in Constantinoupolis of the late 1800s-early 1900s, a world gone forever. Historical events intrude in the background -revolutions, palace coups, massacres, and the great upheavals of WW1 in which Greeks saw their wildest hopes fulfilled, then dashed: for a brief time Constantinoupolis itself was regained, then lost along with all Asia Minor. Through troubles great and small, Loxandra's simple optimism, belief in her Virgin Mary, and love of life carries her family past every difficulty - be it a sumptuous dinner for Easter or secretly giving away her savings to help persecuted Armenians. A representation of a time and place where all neighbors were friends, where they could cook in each other's kitchens or take shelter in each other's cellars.

The autobiography of Maria Iordanidou from 1920 to 1960. The author continues the narratives of the adventures, taking on the form of Anna, granddaughter of Loxandra for dramatic reasons. She begins her story with the destruction of the house in Makrychori, Constantinople, by the Turks. Then Anna goes on a transfer to Alexandria, Egypt, and there she meets her future husband Christidis. Their romance ends in marriage and the newlywed couple comes to Athens. Anna finds a job and works as a secretary at the Soviet embassy. During the years of German occupation, she is arrested by the Gestapo, survives after many hardships, gets caught up in the whirlwind of the civil war and finally manages to raise her children.