The Murderess (New York Review Books Classics)

ISBN: 1590173503

Author: Papadiamantis, Alexandros

Condition: New

The Murderess is a bone-chilling tale of crime and punishment with the dark beauty of a backwoods ballad. Set on the dirt-poor Aegean island of Skiathos, it is the story of Hadoula, an old woman living on the margins of society and at the outer limits of respectability. Hadoula knows about herbs and their hidden properties, and women come to her when they need help. She knows womens secrets and she knows the misery of their lives, and as the book begins, she is trying to stop her new-born granddaughter from crying so that her daughter can at last get a little sleep. She rocks the baby and rocks her and then the terrible truth hits her: theres nothing worse than being born a woman, and theres something that she, Hadoula, can do about that.Peter Levis matchless translation of Alexandros Papadiamantiss astonishing novella captures the excitement and haunting poetry of the original Greek.