Just yesterday I finished the book by my favorite author Pythagoras Eleftheriadis titled "What do you remember from your death?" which is published by Piggi Editions.

This book talks about two young boys who meet during their military service. The first one, Achilles, is a Greek psychology student and the second one, Edward, is half Greek half British, deaf, and a psychiatry student in London. Edward decides to do his military service in Greece for as long as the army allows him. And there Achilles is the person who will be responsible, after an order from his superior, to explain to him in sign language everything that happens around them and that he needs to know in the camp. The two young men will develop a very beautiful close relationship and gradually they will start falling in love with each other.

It is a book that talks to us about homosexuality, deafness, stereotypes, and prejudices surrounding these two previous social issues and the role of the family in shaping both the individual and our society. "What do you remember from your death?" evoked various emotions in me. Emotion, anger, frustration for the pressure that homosexuals experience in our days, and empathy. I tried to put myself in their shoes and understand them. As much as I can. Because it's one thing to think about how you would be if you were in their place and another thing to actually be. The story is well-written, with characters that evolve and have something to say, without many details that tire and with brief descriptions that complement the story instead of "filling" it. However, I also encountered some elements in the book that unfortunately I did not like.

(Caution! The following part of this text contains spoilers!)

Like for example, the fact that the author "loaded" the deaf hero of the book, Edward, with too many skills (water polo player, good cook, pianist). I believe that all these were unnecessary and made the character unrealistic. Edward gains the reader's sympathy only through his behavior towards Achilles and his attitude towards life and people. Furthermore, the book started to lose its interest from the third part onwards. The story got confused in my mind and Edward was presented as a different person, completely different from what the author showed us he is in the beginning of the book. It was as if the characters got mixed up and the author presented Achilles as Edward. Additionally, we observe a lack of local elements. Only Katerini is mentioned as a location without the author referring to specific places and locations, resulting in the story not being as vivid as it could be. Think of the moments when you were looking for images of the places where the events of the books that affected you took place, to see where all the events that impressed you took place. Finally, I did not like the scene with the opening of the grave, which I considered to be a great exaggeration if one considers that the particular scene did not have such intensity for the character to do such a thing.

In general, though, if you overlook the points that I did not like, it is a very good first writing attempt by the author! Pythagoras Eleftheriadis made his appearance in the writing space with a very powerful book that should be read by many people in order to change certain entrenched stereotypical views and perceptions prevailing in today's Greek society.

Rating: 3 - 3.50/5