"The Mermaid Virgin" (1948) is the third major novel by Stratis Myrivilis, following "Life in the Tomb" (1924) and "The Teacher with the Golden Eyes" (1933). These three novels make up the famous "Trilogy of War" by the great author.
In this work, Myrivilis gives us an extensive literary composition, with linguistic power, humor, and architectural skill. In this novel, after a dramatic description of the uprooting of the Asia Minor Hellenism, which reaches the shores of free Greece to take root in ancestral lands, Myrivilis transports us to the fishing village created by the new refugees. In the midst of this tormented world of fishermen, an exotic creature emerges, a strange girl with dazzling beauty, who becomes the center of desire and constant anxiety for the male and female population.
The Greek critics welcomed this third part of the "Trilogy of War" with unanimous enthusiasm. Among the laudatory articles written about it, the extensive front page of the newspaper "Kathimerini" stands out. In it, the distinguished critic and editor of "Kathimerini," Emilios Hourmouziou, characterizes the work as a perfect novel.