IANOS BOOKSTORE and AGRA PUBLICATIONS are hosting a book launch for

KICA KOLBE
LAND OF REFUGEES

INTRODUCTION AND TRANSLATION FROM MACEDONIAN:
ALEXANDRA IOANNIDOU

Wednesday, November 11, 2026, at 7:30 p.m.
at the café of the IANOS bookstore

About the book:

Kica Kolbe’s Land of Refugees is autobiographical in nature. It is an account of the author’s journey, together with members of her family, to the villages of her father’s and mother’s ancestry, villages from which her parents were forced to flee during the Greek Civil War—and which they never saw again, due to the 1982 decision barring “non-Greeks by descent” from repatriation.

And yet: The story of their flight, the intergenerational trauma caused by the grandmother’s unjust and violent death, the difficult years as refugees, her father’s nostalgia for his homeland, which he never managed to see again, and the bitterness over the injustice of an impossible return—none of these lead to indignation or anger. Rather, it is a mature, fruitful, and wise proposal for reconciliation, rooted in a profound religious and philosophical forgiveness, as well as hope for peace. By breaking the silence, it reveals what official history and politics often refuse to discuss—above all, the devastating consequences of cold, calculated decisions on people’s lives and souls.