Antonis Samarakis was born in Athens in 1919. For decades he worked as a civil servant at the Ministry of Labour, temporarily resigning during the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas (1936-40), and during the Second World War he was captured by Nazis and narrowly escaped a death sentence. He published his first collection of short stories, Hope Wanted, in 1954, and his collection I Refuse won the Greek State Prize for the Short Story. Samarakis has become one of the most celebrated Greek prose writers of the second half of the twentieth century, with his work translated into thirty-three languages. He was awarded the Greek Order of the Phoenix and the French Légion d’Honneur. He died in 2003.

”A real masterpiece.” -- Graham Greene

“The Flaw... has wheel within wheels. A remarkable tour de force.” — Arthur Koestler, The Observer

”A powerful work. I only wish some people who profess democracy would read The Flaw and see what it is they actually support.” — Arthur Miller

“Samarakis … [makes] you change your mind over and over about what looks so simple at first. All this technique never flaunts itself but dovetails smoothly, and without strain. The mood in The Flaw is miles from the usual supercharged world of spy thrillers.” — New York Times