In an announcement, the publishing house Gutenberg, from which the much-discussed book of the former prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, will be released, reveals its title: “Ithaca”. The book is expected to be released in bookstores on the second 15th of November.

In the 12 chapters of the book, all the major events of Tsipras’s prime ministership are described and “answers are given for the developments after 2019. The hows and whys that led to the crisis of SYRIZA, which from a small protest party evolved into a large party of power, won the battle to free the country from the compulsions of bankruptcy, but lost the battle with internal pathogens and himself”.

“ITHAKI by Alexis Tsipras is not a book about the past, but a declaration of hope and perspective for the future” is stated, among other things, in the announcement.

The entire announcement

“Our publishing house is pleased and honored to announce the publication of a book that is expected with reasonable interest by the reading public and has attracted publicity long before it reaches the shelves of bookstores. It is about the book of former Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras with the title ITHAKI, which will be released in the second fortnight of November.

Alexis Tsipras records with unique power the events that shocked Greece, but also Europe, in 2015-2019. The brutality of the lenders, the plans to evict the country from the European Union, the closed banks, the referendum, the meetings with foreign leaders, such as Merkel, Hollande, Putin, the reactions of the then opposition, the desperate efforts of the Greek government to free the country from the spiral of memorandums, turn the narrative into a political thriller.

At the same time, the events are attributed and dramatically colored by the personal, confessional and self-critical view of the author, who was the youngest Prime Minister of the country in Greek history. The negotiation strategy and the conflicts with the creditors, the internal upheavals, and the critical dilemmas crystallized into decisions, are described without embellishment and pretense, and give the book the character of a stirring narrative that has the form of a historical document.

The author’s childhood and teenage years are described with literary energy, his radical politicization along the lines of the KNE and the Left, when the world was changing with the fall of the wall, his rise to the head of Synaspsis and SYRIZA, his entry into Maximos.

It is a fascinating, in two words, narrative, in the 11+1 chapters of which the reader will face the truth, documented with documents, minutes of meetings and dramatic dialogues with all the leaders of the time and will understand the thoughts and concerns of Alexis Tsipras at the time, but also the critical view of today, about that period. In addition, he will share the values, paths and conditions that shaped both the author himself and the country’s course. He will find answers to the hows and whys, outside of the distortion that the truth has suffered from the propaganda of recent years.

It will also find answers for the developments after 2019. In the hows and whys that led to the crisis of SYRIZA, which from a small protest party evolved into a large party of power, won the battle to free the country from the compulsions of bankruptcy, but lost the battle with internal pathogens and itself.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly for the citizen of today who looks to the future, ITHAKI by Alexis Tsipras is not a book about the past, but a declaration of hope and perspective for the future. Every event, every revelation, every criticism and self-critical assessment is not treated by the author as an object of archiving for yesterday, but as an object of reflection for today and tomorrow. As an opportunity for him to reflect, but also for those who still insist on the vision of a fair Greece, not just on “what we did”, but on what “we should do”. As a project that wants and comes to add the energy of yesterday to the engine of today.

Looking to the future runs throughout the book. The Prespes, the foreign policy of national sovereignty and peace, the small and big battles, some lost and some won, the steps forward, but also the steps back, are not, in the author’s view, only an object of reflection and experience. But also a meeting ground for those who understand that it is necessary today, perhaps more than at any other time in the post-colonial period, a movement “from below”, which alone can give material substance to a perspective of justice and progress.

In the final lengthy chapter, Alexis Tsipras summarizes these thoughts for the future. A vision for the Left and the country, because, as he writes, “a people that stops dreaming of the best, is ready to accept the worst.”