Kadmo

"Kadmo" reads like a literary photo album of a woman who was modern, politically courageous, and uncompromising in her private life as a writer. The narrative voice of the thirteen chapters—fragments of her lived or narrated life—describes in the second person the sorrow and anxiety of a Greek in exile, the fear of losing her homeland and mother tongue. The novel is both a journey through post-war Europe and through the life and work of the narrator: from her childhood on Mykonos and her youth in Athens before World War II, through her exile in Paris, East Berlin, and Warsaw, and finally to her return to Greece in 1964. The unusual name "Kadmo," which resembles the author's first name and alludes to the autobiographical elements of the novel, recalls Cadmus from Greek mythology, who set out in search of his sister.