A Dream from Autumn's Heart

"What did you feel?" "I saw that, behind these happy eyes, your mind became lost in a melancholy idea. And at those brief moments your gaze kept something of the sorrow of those thoughts with it for a time, and it seemed like that was your real look and all the rest were invented to cover it up." Silence fell in that elevator and she looked at him with the look "that cannot be described," the one the Yuppie had mentioned; it was like he could touch her. "During a devastating earthquake in Athens, Nefeli finds herself trapped in an elevator with a stranger who will change her life." A Dream from Autumn's Heart is the story of Nefeli, a young woman who finds herself trapped in a lift for three days after an earthquake, where she narrates to a stranger the story of her curious life. There, she has realizations about her past, her present and her future, putting together an unpredictable course of her life's events. Harry, the stranger, is an enigmatic, not-so-successful writer, who ends up in the lift by accident while searching for a story for his new novel. On the other hand, Nefeli is searching for balance amidst her emotional fragility, and understanding of her own desire. In the moments they share, they form an unusual connection, capable of both captivating them and enabling them to set themselves free. In Nefeli's narrations, her travels to Africa and the Arabic peninsula, her time walking through Flanders in France, the creation of a world in her mind - to represent the real one that she couldn't bear - and eventually her life in Athens, have a central role in the development of the story, which is also characterized by transitions between those worlds and their symbolic significance in her mind where, in that dystopic world, people live their lives devoid of dreams, as they're prohibited. The story also serves as a strong allegory of life in Greece nowadays, and in many other parts of the world as well, where many people are forced to accept that they will have to deprive themselves the right to hope for a better fate for most of their lives. The picturesque and atmospheric imagination of A Dream from Autumn's Heart is a protest to this monotonous reality. During this near death experience, and with the help of Harry's catalytic role, Nefeli tries to define her attitude towards life.