This is not a faithful biography and many characters are fictional. Others are real, like the character of Loxandra. However, what I tried to faithfully portray are the historical events, customs, and spirit of the era. I hope I succeeded, because I experienced the old city in the early years of my life and it remains deeply engraved in my mind. I caught up with the night watchman who chanted the fire at night, I caught up with the sentries and the Tatavoulon bell, I caught up with the Turkish water seller who asked Loxandra for a miraculous blessing from Balouklitissa to heal his aching eye.
Above, I say that I tried to faithfully portray the historical events and the spirit of the era - and it is true. Of course, I portray them as I saw and experienced them in the narrow bourgeois environment of Loxandra, who lived in Romiomachalades, who "had no dealings with Turks," as she put it herself, of course referring to the ruling class of the Turks, because she had and always had dealings with the poor shopkeeper, with the Kurd who chopped her firewood, and with the night watchman of her neighborhood, and she got along very well with them and loved them.
These are what I started to write, and as I write, I have fun with it. I hope others will have fun with it too.

Maria Iordanidou