The Scapegoat by Sophia Nikolaidou
Design by: Christopher King
Gefyra Book Club:
The Scapegoat by Sophia Nikolaidou, trans. Karen Emmerich
(Melville House, 2015)
Discussion led by Professor Sharon Gerstel, Director, UCLA SNF Hellenic Center
and Dr. Eirini Kotsovili, Senior Lecturer, Global Humanities at Simon Fraser University
Saturday, October 18, 2025
10 A.M. Los Angeles / 8 P.M. Greece
Via Zoom
From the Publisher:
In 1948, the body of an American journalist is found floating in the bay off Thessaloniki. A small-time Greek journalist is tried and convicted for the murder… but when he’s released twelve years later, he claims his confession was the result of torture.
Flash forward to contemporary Greece, where a rebellious young high school student is given an assignment for a school project: find the truth. And as he begrudgingly takes it on, he begins to make a startling series of gripping discoveries–about history, love, and even his own family’s involvement.
Based on the real story of famed CBS reporter George Polk—journalism’s prestigious Polk Awards were named after him—The Scapegoat is a sweeping saga that brings together the Greece of the post-World War II era with the Greece of today, a country facing dangerous times once again.
As told by key players in the story—the dashing journalist’s Greek widow; the mother and sisters of the convicted man; the brutal Thessaloniki Chief of Police; a U.S. Foreign Office investigator, and, finally, the modern-day student, in the novel’s most stirring narration of all–The Scapegoat confronts questions of truth, justice, and sacrifice…and how the past is always with us.
About the Author:
Sophia Nikolaidou was born in Thessalonika in 1968. She teaches literature and creative writing and writes criticism for various newspapers, including Ta Nea. She has published two collections of short stories and three novels, all of which have been translated into eight languages. Her last novel, Tonight We Have Friends, won the 2011 Athens Prize for Literature, and The Scapegoat was shortlisted for the 2012 Greek State Prize for Fiction.
Karen Emmerich’s translations include Rien ne va plus by Margarita Karapanou, Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos, I’d Like by Amanda Michalopoulou, and Poems (1945-1971) by Miltos Sachtouris. She received the 2013 PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for her translation, with Edmund Keeley, of Yannis Ritsos’ Diaries of Exile.
This program is made possible thanks to the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF).
Link to purchase book:
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?isbn=1612193846&clickid=SNaQmzT01xyKTPw2A70VbTfEUksWhC2WzTQ7zI0&cm_mmc=aff-_-ir-_-64613-_-77416&ref=imprad64613&afn_sr=impact&ref_=aff_ir_64613_77416