Kay Cicellis was born in Marseilles in 1926, of Greek parents. In 1936 she came to Greece and learnt Greek. She went to school at the American College in Athens. During the Nazi occupation she was in Cephalonia (1941-1946), the native island of her father. She subsequently travelled to Britain, Italy, Pakistan, Irak, Lebanon and Nigeria. She married in 1957. In 1964 she settled permanently in Athens.
Apart from her novel writing, she worked for radio and as a translator from Greek into English. A number of her short stories have been published in English: The Road to Kolonos (Ermis, 1979), The Lost Floor (Kedros, 1984), and The Dance of Hours (Agra, 1998 - Greek State Short Story Award).
She has published five books in the States, the UK, France, Germany (translated by Heinrich Boll), Spain, Japan and Brazil.

She has translated Greek works
by Tsirkas, Lorentzatos, Koumandareas, Abatzoglou, Vlachou and Rhea Galanaki,
into English.

She died in June 2001.
 
KAY CICELLIS

THE DEATH OF A CITY

NOVEL (120 pages, 17.5X12 cm.)
 

"At 5.30 in the morning, not a single Lixouriot had woken up. Not even Napoleon Vourdouvanos, who was always among the earliest risers. This is why the earthquake of 11 August was so unreal. It got mixed up with dreams, it sprouted out of the illusions of sleep and totally confused poor Napoleon with the strange intangible movements of dream...
Time stood still. It is no longer today, this morning. It is any morning, any day. The scene is motionless, just as previously it was clear and sure. At the bottom, the sea. In the middle, heaps of rusty ruins. To the right and left, the rows of tents. And in the background of the photo, the landscape as it unfolded..."

In this novel Kay Cicellis describes the earthquake that struck the Greek island of Cephalonia in August 1953, which she herself experienced, and its effect on the life of the novel's characters.
This is the second book by Cicellis to be published by Agra (the first being The Dance of Hours, for which she received the 1999 Greek State Short Story Award). It was first published in English in 1954. In Germany it was translated by Heinrich Boll.