ARE YOU INTERESTED IN DISCOVERING WHAT TRADITIONAL ORTHODOX LIFE IN A TRADITIONAL ORTHODOX CULTURE LOOKS LIKE? READ ON WHO WAS ALEXANDROS PAPADIAMANDIS? * Known in Greece as the "Saint of Greek Letters" * Most important literary figure of nineteenth-century Greece WHAT'S HE ALL ABOUT? * Offers lively, tender, and profound short stories of the simple lives of the Orthodox faithful on his native island of Skiathos * Reveals a world of organically lived Orthodoxy, largely lost in the disintegrating order of modern life * A Realist author, he does not portray a romantic, ideal world but rather a profoundly human world of struggle that always has the possibility of transfiguration through life in Christ and His Church WHAT'S THIS BOOK ALL ABOUT? * It reveals the traditional spiritual and liturgical life of the Greek island of Skiathos, which the author shows to be an authentic expression of Orthodox faith * It is read in Greek both by laymen, entranced by his successful marriage of profound theology and the beautiful world Papadiamandis describes, and by students of theology at the University of Thessalonica, where it is used in the Pastoral Theology class * It includes a Foreword by Hieromonk Alexis (Trader), previously Lecturer in Patristics at St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary, and now an Athonite monk * A translator's Introduction follows, which considers the Orthodox understanding of art outside of strictly liturgical bounds * The book also includes two of Papadiamandis's stories, a glossary, map, and more