Let's Wait Until We See the Dawn

Let’s Wait Until We See the Dawn is a testament to those who have lived through war and famine, and have been deprived of the right to keep their own land and identity – told through the extraordinary life of its author, whose journey spans nine decades and three continents. Beginning in Salonika, Greece, in the 1930s, Yiannis tells of his experiences as a young boy whose life is about to be violently disrupted by war with the Italians, occupation by the Germans and the holocaust of Salonika’s Jewish population. A bloody Greek civil war follows, and the lines between friend and foe blur. ‘Never tell a stranger the truth,’ Yiannis' mother warns her children. In 1947, the family seeks refuge in America where Yiannis becomes John – a name that marks the beginning of a new life and the search for a new identity. This journey will take the young man to Asia as a sailor, Korea as a soldier and finally, as an academic, to Africa – the region that will become the lifelong focus of his work. Narrated with empathy and humour, Yiannis’ story is woven through with vivid vignettes, as he navigates unfamiliar cultures and interacts with people from vastly different backgrounds to his own.