Christos Chomenidis

Christos Chomenidis was born in Athens in 1966 and graduated in law. He publishes in Greek as Χ. Α. Χωμενίδης, the initials also used on many of his book covers. His first novel, Το σοφό παιδί (The Wise Child), appeared in 1993. Novels and short stories became the centre of a career that also includes radio broadcasting and scripts for film and television. His books have travelled into several languages, bringing contemporary Greek storytelling to readers beyond Greece.

Νίκη (Niki), published in April 2014, drew on his mother's story to build a fictional family history. In 2015 it received the Greek State Literature Prize and the Anagnostis magazine's novel award, as well as the Public readers' prize. Stamatis Fasoulis directed its stage adaptation in 2017. The European Book Prize followed in 2021, with the ceremony held at the European Parliament in Brussels on 8 December. Patricia Felisa Barbeito's English translation appeared from Other Press in 2023.

His later books continue to explore different relationships between life and invention. Πανδώρα (Pandora, 2025) creates a heroine of the twenty-first century. Δεκατρία (Thirteen, 2026) turns to his first thirteen years, from 1966 to 1979, placing remembered childhood within a changing Greece.

Νίκη (Niki, 2014) places a woman's first-person narrative within a family divided by political commitments. The heroine, born in 1938, experiences exile, occupation and the Greek Civil War. Family memories connect the two shores of the Aegean, while personal choices challenge the roles that ideology assigns. The novel draws on the author's mother but shapes that material through fiction. Its historical background helps a reader locate the story, while its narrative voice gives events a particular human perspective.

Other novels change the scale and setting. Ο Φοίνικας (The Phoenix, 2018) spans 1860–1927 and takes inspiration from Eva Palmer and Angelos Sikelianos, freely transforming historical material. Ο βασιλιάς της (Her King, 2020) gives Menelaus a voice in a new telling of Helen's story. It is a modern Greek novel working with ancient myth. In Δεκατρία (Thirteen, 2026), childhood memory becomes another route through the relationship between a person's life and the history around it. For a Greek learner, one detail in Νίκη is immediately usable: the Greek name Νίκη and the common Greek noun νίκη (victory) sound alike. Their written form and the surrounding sentence tell you which meaning is intended.

Chomenidis reaches readers through Greek editions, translations and adaptations. Νίκη (Niki) also became a theatre production, while its international editions invite discussion of Greek family history beyond Greece. Start a short language exercise on Patakis's page for the original Greek novel. Notice the heroine's name in the title, then look up νίκη in the Dictionary of Standard Modern Greek. Write two sentences of your own: Η Νίκη ανοίγει το βιβλίο and Χαίρομαι για τη νίκη μας. Underline the capital Ν in the name and the lower-case ν in the common noun. Read both aloud: the pronunciation remains the same. The surrounding words help you identify the meaning.

• Χ. Α. Χωμενίδης is the name with initials printed on his Greek books.
• The Phoenix freely transforms material inspired by Eva Palmer and Angelos Sikelianos.
• Niki's 2021 European Book Prize ceremony took place at the European Parliament in Brussels.