Mothers and Sons

An aging writer’s love letter to his elderly mother, this achingly beautiful work of autofiction traces their family’s history in Greece and in exile.

Theodor Kallifatides, an acclaimed Greek author exiled in Sweden for more than 4 decades at age 68, visits his 92-year-old mother, who still resides in Athens. Both know that this may be one of their last encounters before her death. During the week they spend together, they reminisce about the most important things in their lives, including the presence and absence of Theodor’s father, whose life story he is reading. There, his father explains his difficult journey, from his origins as a Greek exile in Turkey through his months in a Nazi prison, and his passion for teaching.

All this reveals the history of a family through the 20th century. But Kallifatides’s book is above all a wonderful tribute to the love of his mother, depicted in an unforgettable way, while conveying a universal truth about the importance of our mothers.

Theodor Kallifatides has published more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry that have been translated around the world. Born in Greece in 1938, Kallifatides immigrated in 1964 to Sweden, where he began his literary career. As a translator, he has brought August Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman to Greek readers, and Giannis Ritsos and Mikis Theodorakis to Swedish ones. He has received numerous awards for his work in both Greece and Sweden. His previous books include Another Life (Other Press, 2018) and The Siege of Troy (Other Press, 2019). He lives in Sweden.

Marlaine Delargy studied Swedish and German at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and she taught German for almost twenty years. She has translated novels by many authors, including Kristina Ohlsson; Helene Tursten; John Ajvide Lindqvist; Therese Bohman; Theodor Kallifatides; Johan Theorin, with whom she won the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger in 2010; and Henning Mankell, with whom she won the Crime Writers’ Association International Dagger in 2018. Marlaine has also translated nine books in Viveca Sten’s Sandhamn Murders series and two books in her Åre Murders series.