Surrounded by unyielding waters, islands have long served as ideal sites of banishment: places where those deemed unfit to exist within the political order, are cast away. Today, at the edges of democracy, and as obedience increasingly becomes an imperative for public presence, the specter of exile islands resurfaces. The entry point for this book is a research trip to Gyaros, an island scarred by memories of displacement and persecution — memories today at risk of erasure and privatization. Islands of Exile weaves together stories of exiled mothers, dogs, dissidents, and psychiatric patients in the Aegean Sea, narrating how humans can carve out spaces of hope and persistence.

illustrations color and b/w
language English
1st print spring 2025

contents:

The Other Sea: Greek Exile Islands
by Antigone Samellas

Proximity is Not Relation
by David Bergé

Gyaros: Re-Mapping an Island of Exile
by Ernestina Karystinaiou Efthymiatou & Tonia Tzirita Zacharatou

The Dog Issue: Death by Exile on ‘No-Good’ Island
by Sanem Su Avcı

The Sea, A Wall
by Elena Vogman

The Child of Gyaros: Motherhood as Resistance
by Makis Solomos

A Chosen Exile
by Carol Sansour