Christos Ikonomou will read from and discuss his short story collection, Something Will Happen You’ll See.

Ikonomou’s stories convey the plight of those worst affected by the Greek economic crisis– laid-off workers, hungry children. In the urban sprawl between Athens and Piraeus, the narratives roam restlessly through the impoverished working-class quarters located off the tourist routes…In Ikonomou’s concrete streets, the rain is always looming, the politicians’ slogans are ignored, and the police remain a violent, threatening presence offstage. Yet even at the edge of destitution, his men and women act for themselves, trying to preserve what little solidarity remains in a deeply atomized society, and in one way or another finding their own voice. There is faith here, deep faith– though little or none in those who habitually ask for it.

Christos Ikonomou was born in 1970. He has published two collections of short stories, The Woman On the Rails (2003), and Something Will Happen, You’ll See (2010). Something Will Happen, You’ll See won the prestigious Best Short Story Collection State Award and became the most reviewed Greek book of 2011.