Anagennisi

A bookshop with a history


It may not have always been called Anagennisi (“renaissance”), but the well-known bookshop-cum-stationer’s-cum-Greek and international newsagent’s has been around since 1932, always owned by the Biza family.

In 1967, alongside the bookstore, the first tourist agency on the island was set up. Tourism was taking its first timid steps, and the sparse visitors –mainly Greeks– would arrive in Parikia onboard the midnight ferry. The local hotels were not more than two, PANDROSSOS and CAIRO, thus, hospitality, a typically Greek and sacred institution, made up for what was lacking.

There were also foreigners living on the island. For them “Markos’ Bookstore”, was more than just a book-selling establishment. As Jeffrey Carson – one of those foreigner residents, who ended up becoming a Parian as he still lives on the island – informs us in his tourist guide, it is there that they would get hold of international papers, while the bookshop operated as an unofficial Poste Restante, given that letters and messages addressed to them went into the special box on site. It was the time when the Aegean School for the Fine Arts was founded and the role of the bookshop was upgraded. A meeting and reference point for the members of the international-Parian community – who had even put up a relevant sign in English!

Until the time came when the younger generation took over, the third in a row, represented by Eleni and Moschoula Biza. It is now housed in a larger space in the pedestrianised street between the port and Ekatontapyliani church, constantly updated with select, hand-picked, titles from Greek and foreign publishers. Book presentations are also held on the premises, both indoors and outdoors, featuring a host of well-known figures, while, recently, Anagennisi Editions, have been set into motion.