The Greek writer Dionysis Charitopoulos had recently been receiving treatment at a hospital in Attica for a serious health condition. His publisher, Topos Publications, announced his death in deliberately plain terms, saying it was writing the news the way he would have wanted it.
Announcement by Topos Publications
“Dionysis Charitopoulos has died. We write it as he wanted it: he did not ‘leave us’, he did not ‘depart’, nor anything of the sort,” the publishing house said in its statement. “Frugal, resilient and true to his word, in life and in his writing.”
Early life in Piraeus
Charitopoulos was born in Piraeus in 1947. He worked there in various manual jobs, at the port and in the surrounding machine shops. He abandoned two early attempts at university studies, in Athens and in London. He then worked in advertising until 1990.
According to Topos, his roots lay in Mesa Mani on his father’s side, and in Mikro Chorio, in the mountains of Evrytania, on his mother’s. The publisher said he considered himself fortunate to have lived through hard times in Piraeus. In his own account, the port and its people gave him crash courses in survival, dignity and understanding human nature, as he worked in gruelling manual jobs from a young age.
Literary work
His first book was published in 1976, and he went on to write 24 books. His best-known works include:
- “Aris, the Leader of the Irregulars”, his biography of Aris Velouchiotis
- “Loves in the Metapolitefsi”, a fictionalised autobiography
- “The Irregulars”, his last book, published in 2022
Topos said that from his first book he won the praise of critics and, above all, of readers. He also left them unable to categorise him. “Unclassifiable, uncategorisable, autonomous are some of the adjectives that accompany him,” the statement said. “He did not belong to literary schools, movements or circles, and he certainly did not follow the dictates of his era. He was a category of his own.”
The publisher described him as “a genuinely nonconformist soul”, whose writing in each of his 24 books carries “the unrivalled charm of the authentic and almost always deeply lived”. It added that the books are his only legacy to the whole world.
Collaboration with Topos
Charitopoulos worked with Topos Publications from its founding in 2007. Over that period, the house published 12 new titles by him and reissued 12 earlier works, his entire previous output.
Personal life
Charitopoulos had been married to the journalist Malvina Karali. He is survived by his son Kostas and his brother Giannis, to whom the publisher extended its condolences.
Farewell from the publisher
In its farewell, Topos said its staff bid him goodbye “like a silent circle dance”. They pictured him dancing one last time to the only song he ever danced to, Vassilis Tsitsanis’ “Isos Avrio” (“Perhaps Tomorrow”).
The publisher said it would keep as a legacy the lines he chose to open his last book:
“I will always be with the barefoot, outside the Winter Palace, even if they are worse than those inside, because they have justice on their side.”
