Georgia Kanary Fountoulakis

The Narrow Furrow

In a village where the harvest once carried song, silence begins to take root. As collectivization tightens its grip, a young boy watches his world narrow, first in words, then in bread. His mother learns what can be traded, what must be hidden, and what must remain silent. A local official records progress in careful lines, even as the truth slips beyond the page. When winter comes, hunger does more than empty the body. It unravels memory, fractures compassion, and turns survival into a quiet reckoning. Years later, what remains is what was lost and what was buried. This novella is a haunting meditation on endurance, erasure, and the fragile inheritance of memory in the shadow of the Holodomor.

​

The Flame of Resistance Beneath Ottoman Shadows

as war engulfs the Black Sea coast and Pontic Greek communities begin to vanish, Eleni, a young schoolteacher in Trebizond, assumes a dangerous new identity as an Ottoman widow to survive and to resist. Moving among military officers while secretly aiding an underground network led by Andreas, the man she loves, she risks everything to protect prisoners, guide refugees to safety, and preserve what remains of her people. But as violence spreads and exile becomes inevitable, Eleni must choose how far she is willing to go to defend her homeland and who she is willing to become to save it.

​

The Shape of What Remains

This novel is a haunting, literary chronicle of Gaza and its people under siege. From the simmering tensions of early 2023 to the collapse of daily life this novel follows residents as they navigate displacement, scarcity, and the moral weight of survival. Told through an omniscient voice and a tapestry of symbolic, reflective vignettes, it captures children tracing dust, families sharing whispered messages, and neighbors rehearsing gestures of care amid rubble. With a focus on memory, human dignity, and ethical attention rather than graphic violence, the novel illuminates the endurance of life and hope under the relentless pressures of history, leaving readers with a vision of resilience, loss, and the fragile beauty of survival.

​

The Ashes and The Flame

This short story journeys through Assyrian events that occurred from 1915 to 1925. It centers on the emotional and ideological evolution of Miriam and Elias as they witness the fall of their homeland and shape the seeds of diaspora memory.

​

How Many Years

This novella is a sweeping tale of love, against a backdrop of civil unrest and ideological tensions in Cyprus, beginning in 1959. Love prevails between childhood friends of separate cultures and religions. With carefree innocence, Barış and Irini grow up together in Nicosia, where Europe and Asia collide. They are inevitably drawn into events linked to Cypriot strife and respond to this turmoil of a divided society. Barış joins an initiative to free Cyprus of Greek, Turkish, and British forces with Irini and his daughter Aleyna at his side. This story of adventure, fervor, and personal heroism endures upheaval in Cyprus as well as religious and cultural differences.

​

Armela

This novel takes place from 1992-1993 in Bosnia. Armela, a 19-year-old Bosnian Serb, has been married just over a year when the Bosniaks attack Srebrenica. Her husband Armin disappears underground. In the dead of night, his friends take her to live with his Bosniak aunt. Armela adopts a new identity as Jasmina Akel. At a dinner party, Armin’s aunt introduces her to a high-ranking Bosniak official, who hires her to work as his assistant. Her husband’s friends urge her to use this position to access details of forthcoming Bosniak attacks. She endangers her safety—and her marriage vows—to help her husband’s cause. As the atrocities of Bosniaks intensify, so does her relationship with the Bosniak official, building to a climax that risks her double life and the lives of those she loves.

​

The Ottoman's Assistant

In 1920, a Greek woman feels abandoned, even when an Ottoman government official saves her from the hardships occurring in İznik. Pressed into service as his assistant, she hides behind a false identity. To survive and maintain her cover, circumstances force her to stand by as Ottomans further their plans toward the Greeks. Suspecting her employer is a man of compassion with hidden depths and sympathies, she cautiously appeals to him on behalf of these Greeks. As she pours herself into efforts to keep Greeks safe, she finds herself battling a growing attraction for this man she should despise, risking the revelation of her identity. Her bravery brings her to the point of ultimate sacrifice. To save other Greeks, she may be unable to save herself.

​

Love in Jasenovac

A young Ustashe soldier stationed in Jasenovac, Croatia in 1941 finds himself in a time and place that promises the birth of a new nation. Despite the consequences, he spares a Serbian woman’s life. While he has never participated in bloodletting, he also has done nothing to stop it and wonders whether his soul can be saved. Will the woman he protected be a key to his redemption?

​

Kyril and Zoe

This short story takes place from 1452-1453 in Constantinople during its siege and fall where the Byzantine Empire, having shrunk to a shadow of its former glory is crumbling. When Kyril, a visionary and world-weary traveler meets Zoe, a nobleman’s daughter, the pair instantly falls in love. As the city prepares to face a massive Turkish army, Kyril and Zoe pursue an indescribable romance.

​

Themis and Adlee

When two women go to a clinic in Crete to give birth to their first children, this short story mirrors the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

​

The Weight of Our Hearts

This novel intricately weaves historical details with a compelling narrative to portray love and espionage during 1916 when the Ottomans sought to break down the Armenian community’s economic, cultural, and political existence and reduce it to a powerless remnant under state control. Set in Constantinople, this novel follows Lieutenant Levon, a military intelligence officer decoding carrier pigeon messages. When he intercepts one addressed to him, he believes it to be from Dalita Kazarian, the Armenian woman who once saved his life but whom he thought lost in the genocide. Drawn by duty and longing, Levon agrees to meet her, only to discover Dalita’s half-sister, Davitina, behind the message. Davitina, working in a dovecote, believes Dalita is alive but held captive by a Turkish informant. Though skeptical, Levon joins her on a dangerous mission across the Ottoman Empire. Facing espionage, betrayal, and violence, the two gradually build trust and confront their traumas regarding Levon’s PTSD and Davitina’s longing for belonging. Their quest entangles them in rival intelligence networks and a perilous plot threatening their lives. Ultimately, their resilience, faith, and growing love guide them toward healing and redemption, underscoring themes of trust, forgiveness, and survival.

​

The Land Holds Their Names

This short story traces the slow unraveling of Indigenous life in California, from first European contact in the 1700s through U.S. statehood in the 1800s. Told through a lyrical, omniscient voice that alternates between the perspectives of the powerful and the witness-like Indigenous people, the narrative interweaves intimate human experiences with sweeping historical forces. This short story contrasts the bureaucratic language of law, contracts, and ledgers with the enduring memory of rivers, forests, mountains, and children who carry ancestral knowledge.

​

Shadows Over Kondomari

This short story moves through the historical events in Kondomari, Crete on June 2, 1941. It focuses on Eleni getting her sons Yoryos and Elias to the home of brother, Kosti Birouraki in Loutraki.

 

Flames Over Chios

Through the intertwined lives of villagers, survivors, and fighters, this short story explores the human cost of war, the bonds of community, and the morality of defiance. It is a story of courage and loss, resilience and remembrance, and the enduring spark of hope that rose from the ashes of atrocity. It takes place in 1822, when the idyllic island of Chios becomes the site of one of the most devastating occurrences of the Greek War of Independence. Families, merchants, and fishermen find their lives shattered as Ottoman forces descend with merciless force, leaving destruction and grief in their wake. Amid the chaos, Konstantinos Kanaris emerges, a young, daring sailor whose courage turns tragedy into strategic brilliance.

​

Some of these novels, novellas, and short stories are available on Barnes & Noble at https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/georgia%20kanary%20fountoulakis

​