Five stops

Critical Reviews

In God is my Witness we had Chrysovantis who brought us face to face with a mirror we did not want to look at. In Five Stops we have Tasoula who makes us want to break that mirror into a thousand pieces. Do we do it? [. . . ] In short, this is an exceptional book that confronts us with our responsibilities, if we sit and think about them.
Thanasis Liakopoulos, Hartis online magazine, January 2021

For me, however, the achievement of our by well-established writer, M.T., is the immediacy that he manages to bring to his short, low-key tale, as concerns the level of expression. We read a confessional, first-person narrative with spot-on, true-to-life speech, that has also incorporated the conversations shared between the characters, in a way that is both spare and yet extremely expressive.
Form and content are so well matched that the novel calls to mind similar classic texts in recent or contemporary literature that distinguished themselves by their economy of language.
Tassos Kaloutsas, frear.gr, 15/11/20 

This is a torrential novel, an unforced confession, a story that makes you angry, marvel, question, empathise with the central heroine, challenge the stereotypes of society.
Apart from his terrific subject, well-sketched personalities and masterful depiction of society, Five Stops is also interesting for its style: Makis Tsitas has weeded out all unnecessary frills from the text while keeping the absolutely essential, making the power of the monologue even stronger.
Chrysanthe Iakovou, fractalart, 10/11/20

Makis Tsitas grips us with a language that is vividly similar to the spoken word, simple, rapid and disarmingly confessional.
[. . . ] He awakens us to the impact of the sick family psychological climate on the lives of its members, especially the children. The novel stirs up questions around the need for respect and self-respect, freedom, individual self-management, responsibility towards “Important Others,” as well as towards oneself, personal responsibility for meaning and self-realisation.
Despina Kaitatzi-Houlioumi, frear.gr, 06/11/20 

With Five Stops, Makis Tsitas gives us one of the most powerful monologues in modern Greek prose.
This is a personal deposition from the soul of a woman who fell victim to her own mistaken choices but turns out to be really strong. The only sure thing is that readers will be riveted by Tassoula’s drama as it hurtles along.
Lefki Sarantini, tetragwno.gr, 03/11/20

Makis Tsitas’ Five Stops is a perfectly constructed novel whose realistic and simultaneously human plot – the writer’s eye on society – will win over the reader. Humanity and realism: the perfect combination. And getting the right balance in the narrative is the mark of the writer’s art! I recommend it without reservation.
Toula Repapi, amagi.gr, 02/11/20

“With an exceptionally Doric style, Makis Tsitas examines all the ins and outs of the contemporary Greek family in the 75 pages of this book.”
Thanos Eziroglou, frapress.gr, 12/10/20

Makis Tsitas systematically cultivates the first person narrative, in a masterful confessional, using the spoken word which owes a lot to his owes a lot to his familiarity with writing for the theatre. We can easily imagine Tasoula on a stage, delivering a monologue on her life to the audience. Tsitas throws a magnifying glass on Greek society and sheds light on the conventions that stifle the individual, particularly in rural areas where women are always the most convenient victims.
Lambrini Kouzeli, To Vima newspaper, 11/10/20

“This book is a riveting monologue which I can’t wait to see performed in the theatre. It is a small book in terms of size but of great literary merit.”
Konstantinos Ioakeimides, methismenesistories,blogspot.com, 14/09/20

“Terse, precise, talented, he uses his warm writing to create literary narratives that are clever in conception, marvellous in structure, very interesting in their plot and merciless in their depth. Whatever Makis Tsitas describes happens. To familiar characters, to acquaintances, to us. They are small or large lures to bring us closer to the mirror. There we will see, those of us who have the strength to look, the vanity of the reflection, the way to shape the destiny of human beings and the responsibility each person has towards this process.”
Giannis Plachouris, fractalart.gr, 08/09/20

“Tsitas is more than proficient at constructing characters that come alive in front of the reader, becoming fully developed personalities with convincing mentalities and ways of life. His novel joins the many texts, which are ever increasing, that add to the reexamination of what we believe about the family. This occurs through a lively monologue, a genuine rendering of the fully rounded main character, a completely engaging portrait of the way in which a woman—wife and mother—takes charge of daily life.”
Giorgos Perantonakis, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 01/08/20

“Packed and exceptional descriptions. Elaborated with the attention and skill that a full literary rendering demands. Ingenious writing, with constant action, surprises and climaxes. Sometimes elegant, sometimes realistic, it draws the reader into the concerns of the heroes, their goals, their weaknesses and their fears, bringing them close to the author’s passion and imagination.”
Dimitris Varvarigos, staxtes.com, 30/07/20

“A book for those who hold high the flag of self-respect. For those who know the meaning of duty, while everything around them is being turned το ruin.”
Nikos Kourmoulis, Ta Nea, 25-26/07/20

“The immediacy of his narrative is riveting.”
Dionysis Marinos, Andro.gr, 19/07/20

“Makis Tsitas creates the heroes in his book using fast pacing and a language that is both rich and immediate. He describes events so vividly that the reader becomes part of them. He makes us share the truth of his heroes and brings us face to face with the responsibility for their actions, placing us in the sometimes difficult, sometimes easy position of the judge. He creates upsets and keeps the reader’s unwavering interest. But let’s not reveal all the merits of the book, which are multiple. Let the readers themselves discover them and enjoy Makis Tsitas’s latest creation!”
Maria Kotopouli, Peri Ou, 18/07/20

“A woman like Tsitas’s heroine would not be a subject of interest to many writers. And yet here she is portrayed as a tragic figure with the force that tragedy usually bestows on its heroes. And if we don’t also see the murderous element, which we were perhaps expecting as the heroine’s justifiable reaction, it is because the writer’s choice was to show the underlying motive in order to slowly build up to a rupture that would not be apparent at first glance. Perhaps for this reason, it is also more significant, more honest, more effective in the last analysis since it leads through a difficult path to a paradoxically real pact of liberation.”
Dione Dimitriadou, culturebook.gr, 18/07/20

“A heart-rending monologue on human decency, the loss of one’s dreams and the weakness of forward-looking changes because of the gender-based discrimination that a woman faces. A book about the essential confrontation with the life decisions a woman has to take, written with disarming frankness and narrative inventiveness.”
Tessy Baila, Kathimerini tis Kyriakis, 15/08/20

“A realistic work, with language that flows, with vitality and truth, and which, apart from the pleasure bestowed by the narrative, also opens up a plethora of social and psychological questions.”
Asimina Xerogianni, fractalart.gr, 14/07/20

“This is an exquisite creation . . . Tsitas does not write in order to proclaim himself a [literary] giant, on the contrary, discreetly and subtlely, concentrating on the small and beautiful (even his books for children constitute almost poetically expressive descriptions), he succeeds in conveying the pleasure and entertainment that only literature can accomplish.”
Christos Papageorgiou, popaganda.gr, 14/07/20

“Makis Tsitas, that most prolific of creators, shapes a wonderful story, which is told by Tassoula, in the first person . . . Tassoula, for as long as we keep reading, remains in our home and sits next to us on the sofa, tucking her skirt below her knees and sipping her hot coffee, looking at us right in the eye. She starts to tell us the story. She stops every now and then, when she senses that we’re on the verge of tears. She offers her hand. She asks if we’re all right. She wipes our eyes, our glasses and we nod in the affirmative. Then she continues her tale.”
Kostas Koulis, noisy.gr, 11/07/20

“As a writer he surprises us with his ability to observe and describe with thrilling persuasiveness and lucidity, sliding up a subliminal musical scale that provides the rhythm and coordinates the thought behind his heroine’s every action, recording her state of mind at every moment of her life, as if he was listening to the inner vibrations of her heart like the faint whisper of a bittersweet rhythm or cry. How well a writer must know the innermost psyche of a woman in order to be able to describe with such admirable fluency her reactions, focusing on every detail without leaving any gaps, while keeping the continuity of the plot and the reader’s unwavering attention.”
Eleni Horeanthi, tvxs.gr, 03/07/20

‘. . . it could have rambled on in a fictional river of a thousand and more pages. However, Makis Tsitas, obviously a very competent manipulator of the timely, the quantitatively small form, condenses this potentially epic narrative in a particularly effective, functional summing up of extreme passions. The reader’s interest is unflagging, as one would expect . . .
The writer continues to convince us both of the value and of the range of his personal creative canon of creative expression
Giorgos Veis, Peri Ou, 13/06/20

“A tragic story, depicted in a most realistic way using language that is at the same time simple yet powerful, which shows how the character of a person is constructed and conducts itself according to each one’s creed, that which one has learnt from from one’s family and has a sacred duty to uphold, at whatever cost!”
Ioulia Ioannou, vivlio-life.gr, 26/05/20

“Tassoulas's words demonstrate how strong a woman is and how weak a man who relies only on his physical strength... Tsitas’s writing has the immediacy, vitality and simplicity of a man who has something to say. With a style that is both rough and familiar, with prose so familiar as to be revealing.”
Alexandros Stergiopoulos, toperiodiko.gr, 17/05/20

“With his mastery, Tsitas builds Tasoula’s world point by point. But even as he builds, he disassembles to reveal the hypocrisy, the rhetorical violence, the abuse, the contempt for her husband, her children, her in-laws. […] The language is key to capturing the surrounding climate, to setting the scene and yielding the subtle fluctuations of the soul.”
Anthoula Daniil, Avgi on Sunday, 10/05/20

“The novella of the award-winning author Makis Tsitas is a realistic work that is deeply social and exceptional. It outlines the influence society exercises on the individual. It reveals the transactional nature of communication among people while highlighting social gender relations. Giving particular attention to the idiom of the heroine, the author creates a discourse that is natural, alive and persuasive.”
Lilia Tsouva, frear.gr, 22/04/20

“A monologue read breathlessly, the story of a life like those many women have lived or heard about... a struggle for life, dignity and courage. From the superb pen of Makis Tsitas.”
Efi Chrysou, deBop.gr, 21/04/20

“Wonderfully paced, with the naturalness and immediacy of a monologue that speaks in the manner of an unvarnished confession, the author chooses his words carefully, as if writing poetry...What always distinguishes the books of Makis Tsitas is his unique approach to the individual, and a rare wisdom, hidden in simple language.”
Giouli Tsakalou, Athens Voice, 17/04/20

“In this book, Makis Tsitas demonstrates that he knows how to enter the souls of popular heroes and to open them up like a rose of many petals! He presents us with a heroine whose life offers food for thought. The writing is simple and on target. It speaks in the first person about an uphill journey, dispensing from the outset with melodrama: there is no need for forced emotion, since it is strongly there throughout.”
Despina Katsochi, akoslife.com, 16/04/20

“An exceptionally well-written book which holds the reader’s attention from the first page to the last.”
Panayiotis Kolelis, literature.gr, 14/04/20

“The absence of intellectualism here is not a deficiency, but a gift. The thoughts of an ordinary woman are not complicated by concepts and ideology. She may unwittingly behave in terms of a neo-Christian standard of ethics and a petty bourgeois standard of social conduct, but that happens unwittingly, since she abstains from the futile activity of self-psychoanalysis, giving the reader the opportunity to critically evaluate, from a distance, a situation with no exit....”
Konstantinos Bouras, fractalart.gr, 08/04/20

“The modest tones are moving, and the tensions created by the strange, mysterious ways in which people love each other are startling. The inventive and unexpected ending is another plus to Tsitas’ mastery as an author.”
Jenny Manaki, fractalart.gr, 08/04/20

“Makis Tsitas, in this book you achieve something very important and unusual for a male author. You speak with authenticity with the voice of a woman, your heroine. And to do – in her own voice -- what she herself does not dare to do: to demand at least some shred of pity or sympathy, identification or rejection, from her fellow humans and readers. And very simply to send a message from the Tasoulas of this world, at the fifth and final stop in their lives, to push aside the driver and take control of the bus.”
Kostia Kontoleon, fractalart.gr, 01/04/20

“In addition, Makis Tsitas has crafted the character of Tasoula exceptionally well, both in terms of time and place, and in terms of the language used by a woman who comes from a provincial village of northern Greece and who spent thirty years in Thessaloniki, but still uses her idiomatic terms for ‘me’ and ‘you’, giving her monologue a different feel.”
Christos Ioannou, irafina.gr, 26/03/20

“Wonderfully paced, and with the naturalness and immediacy of a monologue and first person narrative, that provides a sense of angry confession, without affectation and needless embellishment, without slickness or compromise, in everyday language, without masking his heroine and the world in which she lives in modesty. The author chooses his words − picking them one by one as if writing poetry − and structures phrases in a manner perfectly suited to capture Tasoula’s pulse. This monologue is a breathtaking read.”
Apostolos Pappos, elniplex.com, 26/03/20

“Personally, I liked the book a great deal. [...] The fact that Tsitas manages to shape his protagonists so authentically and realistically, that he gives voice to a person who we don’t frequently encounter in the pages of a book, and that the work may initiate a discussion about issues like the role of the woman in the family, human relationships, and so on, made me, overall, feel that I used my afternoon happily, creatively and enjoyably.”
Giorgos Masayiannis, vivlioniki.wordpress.com, 17/03/20

“I have noted on other occasions that I consider Tsitas to be a unique case in our literature [...] The final depiction of the relationship of this very sick couple, Tasoulas and Theofilos, shows us how, from a certain point on, the victim and the perpetrator identify with each other and perhaps even reverse roles. This marks the success of the author’s “scalpel”. Besides which—let’s recognize it—the author is most often ahead of the psychoanalyst.
Manos Kontoleon, periou.gr, 14/03/20