Henriette Lazaridis at Harvard Book Store

Harvard Book Store welcomes HENRIETTE LAZARIDIS—GrubStreet teacher and author of The Clover House and Terra Nova—for a discussion of her new novel Last Days in Plaka. She will be joined in conversation by MARJAN KAMALI—internationally bestselling author of The Stationary Shop and Together Tea.

About Last Days in Plaka

Today's Athens is a city of contradictions and complexity—it is grand and scruffy, ancient and modern, full of strivers, refugees and old-timers—and nowhere more so than the neighborhood of Plaka, where the Parthenon looms overhead and two women grapple with what is right and what is true, and how to live your life when you are running out of time.

Searching for connection to her parents’ heritage, Greek-American Anna works at an Athens gallery by day and makes street art by night. Irini is elderly and widowed, once well-to-do but now dependent on the charity of others. When the local priest brings the two women together, it’s not long before they form an unlikely bond. Anna’s friends can’t understand why she spends so much time with the old woman, yet Anna becomes more and more consumed by Irini’s tales of a glamorous past. As they join the priest’s tiny congregation to study the Book of Revelations in preparation for a pilgrimage to Patmos, Anna sinks deeper into Irini’s stories of an estranged daughter and lost wealth and the earthquake damage to her noble home.

Looking for revelation of her own, and driven by a sense that time is running out, Anna makes a decision that puts her in peril, exposes Irini's web of lies, and compels Anna to confront the limits of her own forgiveness.

Praise for Last Days in Plaka

"Secrets, lies, and the vibrant backdrop of life in present-day Athens compel this elegantly written tale of two women—a Greek-American embarking on adult life, and her new friend who prefers the long-ago Athens of her memories. Lazaridis’ moving story opens into a consideration of faith and forgiveness as each woman examines how to apply the essential notion of grace to their complicated relationships." —Daphne Kalotay, author of The Archivists

"Henriette Lazaridis sets her gorgeously written new novel against the backdrop of heat-baked modern Athens, unfolding the story of two mesmerizingly complex women: an aging widow who depends on the kindness of others, and the young Greek-American glued to her Scheherazade like tales of previous grandeur. A true stunner about the lies we tell, the truths we hide and the female connections that transform us." —Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Days of Wonder

"A thoughtful and thought provoking encounter between two worlds, that of the elderly and that of the young. In this delicately drawn, unfurling narrative Henriette Lazaridis captures perfectly the contradictions of youth, the fine mix of equivocation, conviction, imprudence and self belief." —Aminatta Forna, author of Happiness

Masking Policy

Masks are encouraged but not required for this event.