Review of The Cleaner of Kastoria

 This novel encapsulates the Greek political scene over the past seventy years through the engaging character and lifestyle of Dina, the Cleaner of Kastoria. She  is a poor and embittered 50 year old Greek woman, whose considerable potential could not flower both as a result of the poverty of her village upbringing  and because she fought for the Democratic Army in the Greek Civil War of 1947.

Dina spends her life battling to make a living as a cleaner in a rich man's mansion. She then returns home at night to further domestic tasks and to tend her sick daughter and a beloved little granddaughter. Rena's lungs are affected by her unhealthy working conditions in a factory. She remembers her time in the woman's brigade as a period when she was respected, although h she was often half starved, exhausted and in danger.  There Greek patriarchal attitudes were replaced by equal treatment and admiration for her courage and that of her fellow women fighters there she enjoyed a close camaraderie and some fun with her fellow women fighters.

This is an extremely well- researched novel giving graphic insight into the horrors the fighters endured during that brutal civil war as well as  the  repression suffered by the Greek people under the Colonels  in the seventies and the resultant inequality . The author manages to evoke the authentic atmosphere and beauty of the Greek landscape and to celebrate the joyous culture as well as the struggle of ordinary people just to survive. Dina despite her travails can often be moved by the beauty of the lake or the mountains. The narrative flows and Dina's character, particularly, is vividly evoked as she struggles between her commitment to her ideology and human compassion, between the needs of her family  and her passion for  her left wing past. The novel is well constructed each chapter headed by apposite historical quotes and it is an engaging read.

Val Simanowitz.