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Stefanos of Limassol (published 2012 by Ilura Press)
Anna Kannava developed an interest in fiction writing in the early 2000s. She started writing her first novel Stefanos of Limassol in 2003, and it was then refined over the next years, including in 2011 when Anna's health was failing her. It was published in 2012, after Anna's passing, by Ilura Press, and had a launch at the Greek Film Festival in Melbourne in November 2012, with acclaimed writer Arnold Zable launching the book.
Senior editor at Ilura Press, Christopher Lappas, told Neos Kosmos newspaper that "It was difficult to resist Anna’s enthusiasm and vision. Anna touched us all. She exuded an immense zest for life, right up until the end."
Full story of the launch here:
Anna Kannava book launch, Neos Kosmos, October 25, 2012.
SYNOPSIS:
Despo is an Australian photographer visiting the island of her birth, Cyprus, a country divided by invasion since 1974. At a traditional celebration in a village in the mountains, Despo sees the slender figure of a man in white. When she glimpses his face, she remembers him. It is Stefanos, who was the boy she loved before she left the island at the age of fourteen.
Stefanos is defined by the women in his life. In the '70s he was the ‘DJ Prince’, in love with Eleni, the most beautiful girl in town. And there is Katya, a young Russian dancer, who wants to marry him. Then there is Margarita, his soul mate, who adored him from the moment he was born, when she was working as a young prostitute, renting rooms at his mother’s house. And living next-door to him, there is the religious Roula, Stefanos’s playmate when they were children.
As Despo and Stefanos unravel their pasts, each tries to understand the meaning of belonging, love, and loss, amidst a distant glimpse of hope for the reunification of the island.
Purchase the novel here, through Ilura Press
So Much Joy – Lisboa! (unpublished as of 2023)
Lisbon in Portugal was one of Anna's favourite cities to visit, when she travelled there in the 2000s.
She wrote this novel from about 2008 onwards, but never finished refining and editing it, and it remains unedited and unpublished as of 2023.
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