... Rea Galanakis' novel addresses major social and political problems of Modern Greek history, in indirect fashion but highly effectively as literature. These problems are centred on the Isle of Crete, where for four centuries the Venetians, the Mohamedans and the Greeks came across each other, and where the interests of the land and the intrigues of the major European powers came into conflict. Mentions of the social and political environs are done, mercifully, in a very discrete manner; they are, to a large extent, transformed, as they project and enforce themselves onto the human and geographical world of the novel, thereby determining the outcome of its action. In two words: knowledge of society in Galanakis' book is transformed into knowledge of humanity, which knowledge of humanity, I would argue, is both circumstantial and archetypal.