The painter and the model

In the dock, accused of the murder of the corrupt, high-profile lawyer and her lover Menelaos Drakoglou, stands Vasiliki Koralli. She argues that this was the only way to escape the blackmail he imposed on her, demanding her dignity and freedom in return. By her side stands the painter Giorgos Veremis, with whom she shares a happy past but also years of hatred.Journalist Nikos Michailidis, Veremis’s only friend, who has lived the entire story up close and intervened decisively at certain points, takes on the task of narrating everything that happened before the trial. The youthful, happy years of Koralli’s shared life with Veremis. The cursed years of their separation, where pain and misguided choices consumed both of their souls. The legal battle initiated by Koralli for the ownership of twenty-five portraits depicting her and its unexpected outcome. Koralli’s peculiar relationship with the family man Drakoglou. Veremis’s relationship with the Greek-American Natalie Pappas and his brutal beating by Drakoglou’s henchmen.The story could have ended here if Koralli didn’t attempt to put an end to everything connecting her to Drakoglou. She moves to her place of origin, Thassos island, reconnects with Veremis, who follows her unsuspectingly and they plan their future. Everything would have been fine if Drakoglou didn’t still consider Koralli his property, bound to him with a sick passion, blackmailing her ruthlessly to submit to his desires.Beyond all this, the main story revolves around a love that fell apart, the lives of two people who thereafter navigate between unhappiness and wrong choices, and the decisive way in which these affect their lives. Even when given a second chance to 'fix' their previous lives, they struggle to disentangle themselves from the shadows of the past, leading them to destruction.It is a contemporary story set in Greece and it can be read on multiple levels. This novel is aimed at every reader interested in art, the workings of justice behind closed doors and it presents a story about how complex people’s lives can become if they fear to seek happiness where they know it exists.