The Murderess

The Murderessis a bone-chilling tale of crime and punishment with the dark beauty of a backwoods ballad. Set on the dirt-poor Aegean island of Skiathos, it is the story of Hadoula, an old woman living on the margins of society and at the outer limits of respectability. Hadoula knows about herbs and their hidden properties, and women come to her when they need help. She knows women's secrets and she knows the misery of their lives, and as the book begins, she is trying to stop her new-born granddaughter from crying so that her daughter can at last get a little sleep. She rocks the baby and rocks her and then the terrible truth hits her: there's nothing worse than being born a woman, and there's something that she, Hadoula, can do about that. Peter Levi's matchless translation of Alexandros Papadiamantis's astonishing novella captures the excitement and haunting poetry of the original Greek.

Alexandros Papadiamantis (1851–1911) was a Greek writer and translator who was born on the island of Skiathos. He wrote throughout his life on the island, publishing newspaper articles, short stories, and serialized novels, but remained a recluse until his death.

Peter Levi (1931–2000) was a poet, travel writer, biographer, and Fellow of St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. He was widely known for his translations from the Greek.