“You cannot die unless you write this story.”
“In order to write it, someone must die first.”
This enigmatic dialogue lies at the heart of Zyranna Zateli’s novel. The central character, Lefka T., who has been particularly gifted at writing from a very young age, works secretly for ten years, from the age of 23 to 33, as a ghost writer for the middle-aged wealthy lady S. Lefka takes on the role of “invisible” for financial reasons, but deep down because she believes that this whole experience will serve as first-rate material, lived material, for a special story she has in mind to write later. And at some point that happens. Lefka will then find herself facing an unexpected moral dilemma. She realizes that it is increasingly difficult for her to tarnish the posthumous reputation of Mrs. S., the imaginary author, thus betraying the trust she had shown her, even if she is not going to name her. In the end, what is more valuable? The precious material of a decade that is “sacrificed” for the sake of compassion, or the strange novel that Lefka will write based on a story she prefers to keep silent about?

Kastaniotis, 2021, 368 p.