for the book Shoes with Wings
A remarkable novel, with a special rhythm to it. It possesses vitality, truth, inspiration and the slyness of a fox. In essence, it is a composition of poetic moments that deceives us in the guise of a novel, thanks to a potent dose of prose. From the very first page, one realizes it is not possible to stay on the surface. There are masterful tricks that draw you to the substance. Symbolisms, contrasts, abstraction, dreamlike states, bewitching words, loving moments, sweet excesses, simplicity and wisdom, well honed experience and knowledge, sadness, losses both visible and unprofessed, orphanhood, migration, war, hope, theatricality. All of it with the economy of an intelligent, elliptical outlook on the events surrounding us. Maria Papayanni is shaking her soul at the balcony and images fall. We have here an excellent writer. A philosophy manual. As such, it prompts us to the optimism we ought to embody.”