An insignificant, unarmed, awkward, and weak woman serves as our jester, because she does not know how tragic she is. Laughing, she mocks herself and deceives us so that we do not mock her. With her life, she defends another woman, punished, who refuses to defend herself: her mother.
On this journey (her entire life), from pre-war times to the present, she experiences the Occupation, refugee status in the capital, and begging, disguising herself and her life. She will never understand that, in defending her mother, she accompanies her permanently humiliated homeland, in which she lives exiled, making jokes.
Some may think she symbolizes her country (their country), as both have endured similar humiliations, share arelated non-future, and jest. To avoid becoming a target, she will minimize and ridicule herself.
She will prepare for injuries, self-harming preventively every day. Yet no one will stone her. Because no one has noticed her existence. And since she has no one of her own (even the author of this book abandons her), the woman finds refuge in the reader of the book for companionship and comfort.
For no one can explain a book. Not even its author. But everyone can read it. The Mother of the Dog was first published in 1990 and since then touches not only the Greek reading public but also lovers of good literature abroad.
This highly translated masterpiece by Pavlos Matezi has been praised by both domestic and global critics and is included by the London publishing house Quintet Publishing in the 1001 books of world literature that one must read before the end of their life (in the volume 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die). About the book, they wrote: “In The Mother of the Dog, just like Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury, Matezi gives voice to the poor in spirit [...] an exceptionally powerful work.” Le Monde
“A top work of Greek –and not only– contemporary literature [...] every page touches and captivates us.” Die Welt
“Life explodes like a bomb [...] there are countless scenes that we will remember.” Corriere della Sera
“It possesses the deep ambivalence of great works [...] inspiration and skill reminiscent of Fellini.” La Quinzaine Littéraire
“Matezi is a very great novelist.” L’ Express
“Only a master of writing could have written this book.” Alan Sillitoe
