“Pine cone” is a raw, literary, autofictional novel about a woman discovering at forty- five that she’s been autistic with ADHD her whole life, and no one noticed. Anthi, an incisive and darkly humorous narrator, moves between first and second person as she recounts a life shaped by misdiagnosis, bodily shame, medical trauma, and emotional neglect. When her pain becomes unbearable to face directly, she shifts into “you”, distancing herself from her own memories in order to survive.
The narrative is not time-linear, the reader navigates it through the novel’s emotional spine. Each chapter is named after a human organ, or an autistic trait, mapping trauma into the body itself.
The protagonist was born in the late seventies in Greece, is now married, has two sons, one of whom is also autistic. Panagiotis has invented a whole new language, a one-word language, he chimes “Pine cone” in all tones possible, and that’s the only way he can express emotion. It’s his love language.
As Anthi begins to unmask, dropping the camouflage of neurotypicality, she realizes that an autism diagnosis does not immediately grant her an identity. “Pine cone” is ultimately a coming-of-age novel, about learning to exist like your true self, no apologies needed, choosing visibility as a means for survival.
2025, 132 P.
