Madres e hijos

At the age of sixty-eight, Theodor Kallifatides, exiled in Sweden for more than four decades, visits his mother of ninety-two, who continues to reside in Athens. They both know that it may be one of their last encounters. During the week they spend together, they remember what has been the most important thing in their lives with a decisive presence of the father, of whom Theodor is reading the written account that he has left of what has been his difficult existence, since its origins as a Greek exile in Turkey, going through his months in a Nazi prison and his passion for teaching. Thus the origins of a family that goes through the twentieth century are revealed. But the book is above all a wonderful tribute to the love of a mother, whom Kallifatides knows how to embody in these pages in an unforgettable way, while managing to convey a universal truth about the importance of that figure in our lives.