December 3, 1944: the Nazis are gone, the nightmare is over. Hundreds of thousands of people march through the heart of Athens to celebrate victory.
Sofia, a 16-year-old peasant girl from northern Greece, feels carried along by this immense wave of popular enthusiasm. Around her, women, children, old people, and resistance fighters who had come down from the mountains surge forward to shout their joy. Laokratía! The power of the people has arrived… Suddenly, a shot rings out, and a man collapses. The government has ordered the crowd to be fired upon. A fratricidal conflict begins that will tear apart every Greek family.
Sofia’s life is turned upside down. From clandestine action to armed struggle, from prison to the mountains, the young girl endures trials and tribulations to defend her homeland and the ideals of justice and equality in which she passionately believes. A formidable odyssey where courage and solidarity are combined with a passion for the Greek land.
With Laokratia, Murielle Szac reopens a bloody chapter in Greek history, little known in France, that of the civil war that began just after World War II. And she offers us a great novel of female resistance. A universal text, cruelly topical, on the mechanisms of civil war. A moving ode to the courage of women.
