The Statue Who Was Always Cold

• Greek State Award for Children's Fiction (2000)
• Greek section of IBBY Award (2000)
• Diavazo Literary Magazine Award (2000)

A little boy made of marble, with a cloak round his shoulders and a little dog in his arms, was the statue that got cold. A small statue in the Athens Archaeological Museum, which refugees had brought with them years earlier from Asia Minor.

And the little statue grew cold from nostalgia. Because statues only get cold from nostalgia and loneliness. He longed for his lost homeland on the other side of the Aegean, its fields full of poppies, the lapping of the waves and the shells that gathered on the shores of Troy. The little statue kept dreaming of seeing his homeland again, even once, just for a short time.

This nostalgia is the occasion for a sensitive story that starts in the real world and opens magical pathways into fantasy.

A strange blue bird that can hear children’s longings starts flying into the Archaeological Museum at night, bringing shells and flowers from Asia Minor to the little marble boy. And it eventually becomes the flying intermediary for the fantastic journey to the homeland. It provides the coveted solution.

The workers at the museum are also involved in this journey: the busy director of the museum, the sweet, beautiful cleaning woman with her blue eyes, and the young son of the night watchman, who dreams of becoming a sculptor when he grows up. They are three completely different people, each of whom has his or her own way of talking to the little statue.

They all become friends, meeting every Sunday to talk about the past, the present and the future, but most of all about future events that touch on the past.