Author Dionysis Charitopoulos, who had recently been hospitalized in Attica due to a serious health condition, has died at the age of 79.
Dionysis Charitopoulos was born in 1947 in Piraeus, where he worked in various manual labor jobs at the port and in nearby machine shops. He abandoned two attempts at higher education—one in Athens and one in London—early on. He worked in advertising until 1990.
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ ΑΡΘΡΑ
His last book, published in 2022, was *The Rebels* (People and Events). He had also written the biography of Aris Velouchiotis (“Aris, Leader of the Unruly Ones”), his fictionalized autobiography *Loves in the Post-Dictatorship Era*, and many other works.
He was married to the journalist Malvina Karali.
The announcement from TOPOS Publishing:
“Dionysis Charitopoulos has passed away. We’re writing this just as he would have wanted: he neither left nor departed, nor anything of the sort. Frugal, resilient, and down-to-earth in his life and writing.
Born and raised in Piraeus, with his father hailing from Mesa Mani and his mother from the small village of Evrytania high in the mountains, he was, as he himself said, grateful that he had the good fortune to live through tough times in Piraeus, where the port and its people taught him rapid lessons in survival, dignity, and an understanding of human nature, as he worked from a young age at grueling manual labor.
From his first book in 1976, Dionysis Charitopoulos had earned the praise of literary critics and, above all, of his readers—but also their inability to categorize him. Unconventional, unclassifiable, and independent are just some of the adjectives used to describe him. He did not belong to any literary schools, movements, or circles, and he certainly did not follow the dictates of his time. He was in a class of his own. A truly nonconformist soul whose writing in each of his 24 books exudes the unparalleled charm of the authentic and is almost always deeply personal. These books are his sole legacy to the world.
Dionysis Charitopoulos collaborated seamlessly with TOPOS Publications from their founding in 2007. During this time, 12 titles were published and 12 were reprinted—all of his previous works.
Dionysis, all of us here at TOPOS Publications bid you farewell like a silent circle dance, watching you dance one last time to the only song you ever danced to—Tsitsanis’s ByzantineTsitsanis’s “Maybe Tomorrow,” and we hold as our legacy what you chose as the opening to your last book:
I will always stand with the barefoot ones,
outside the Winter Palace, even if they are worse
off than those inside, because they are on the right side of history.
A warm hug to your wonderful son Kostas and your brother Yiannis.
TOPOS PUBLISHING”
