The King and the Sage

A beggar’s tale. A monk’s confession. A king’s enlightenment.The King and the Sage is a dazzling odyssey across time and space, where myth and memory collide in the forgotten alleys of ancient India. At its heart is Plato—no, not that one—but a half-Greek, half-Indian polyglot, storyteller, and reluctant philosopher, who scribbles his tale in secret from a remote mountain monastery. While the elders demand sacred dialogues and pious retellings, Plato’s quill wanders elsewhere: to the dust-choked streets of Sagala, the shimmer of temples, the scent of jasmine and spiced rice, and a father lost in dreams of lunar voyages and theatrical reveries.This is a book within a book, a manuscript smuggled through time. It tells of King Menander (Milinda), warrior and seeker, who confronts not armies but questions. A humble sage matches his might with riddles, drawing the monarch down the Eightfold Path—toward something far more profound than conquest.George Zarkadakis conjures a literary tapestry rich with sensual detail, sardonic wit, and philosophical depth. With echoes of Homer, Calvino, and Eco, he crafts an unforgettable narrative where reason duels with wonder, and history is a stage for truth dressed in metaphor.For lovers of mythic fiction, Eastern philosophy, and metafictional brilliance, The King and the Sage is not just a novel—it’s a whispered truth from a beggar-poet to the emperor within us all.