It has been twenty years since the death of George Ioannou. So far, the event has not received the necessary attention, judging by the indifference of most newspapers that shape their pages for the book conditions of our literary stock exchange. The reason is obvious. "Ioannou does not sell," declared a publisher addicted to the best-seller literary genre. And yet, Ioannou was the most "marketable" of the prose writers of his time until his death. [...] The reason why Ioannou is one of our top prose writers has been convincingly explained by criticism. Summarizing its evaluation, we would say that his work, apart from the vividness with which it depicts human fate, is also a pivotal point for our prose. And this is because his writing, with its peculiar and crucial formulation, constituted a deep modernization; a convergence, we would add, with the most essential contemporary expressions of Western prose, which decisively contributed to the renewal of our prose. What is unique in Ioannou's case is that this modernization was endogenous; that Ioannou achieved it not by engaging in dialogue with his contemporary Western quests, as almost always happens in our literature, but by composing and merging into a drastic blend the most vital elements of modern Greek prose throughout time. [...]
(from the preface by Nasos Vagenas)