Critical Reviews

 

Makis Tsitas, a consistent, profound, clear, esoteric observer of modern Greek society as he demonstrated indisputably with his wonderful As God is My Witness and Five Stops (a woman’s monologue), but also with his children’s books, which are filled with thoughts way beyond the typical children’s fare. He proceeds through these ten short one-act plays to yet another robust, terse description of today’s society that breathes alongside us, very close to us. Emotions where loneliness and solitude prevail no matter how many relatives there are, how distant they appear from each other, as the regulatory criterion of choice separates them. Solitary people, ill-matched, who are not mirrored anywhere, people who seek the other in unconventional, unusual ways, who try to communicate, clumsily, unexpectedly, who are lost in the big city of mazes that they have often created themselves, who are lost in themselves and in daily routines, who see the chair they’re sitting on being sawn to bits and realize that no one can fix it except themselves.
Apostolos Pappos, elniplex.com, 22/06/23 

Tsitas’ one-act plays are characterized by one enormous, different profile, survey of contemporary Greece – the Greece of apartment blocks but also of village squares, of emotions but also wounded existence. […]Those who did not see them, either because they didn’t find tickets or didn’t hear about these fabulous one-act plays when they were performed, now have the chance to read them in this very elegant edition published by Kapa.
Christos Papageorgiou, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 06/05/23

Tsitas is a multifaceted writer, with imagination and, especially, depth . . . It is always interesting to see how different creative people filter their subject and how they present it to the public so that it involves them, making them reflect and feel it. I think Tsitas succeeds from the moment that we have the feeling that his heroes are ourselves, since we enter into the process of contemplating our own life, its texture and ramifications.
Asimina Xirogianni, booktimes.gr, 09/10/22

Makis Tsitas, justly and rightly awarded the European Prize for Literature in 1914, is among the most important playwrights of our times, worldly within his eminent Greekness. Like Chekhov and with a happy philanthropic disposition, he transforms Christian sorrow into a Bacchic rhythm of joy without losing even an iota of his Olympian calm . . .
His characters range from the surreal to the grotesque, like insects under a researcher’s microscope, wretched creatures caught in the web of an invisible spider.
Konstantinos Bouras, Odos Panos journal, October-December 2022 

Special characters, subterranean humour, subjects drawn from daily life, the quest and need for human contact, all in one book, which one can read again and again with great interest, each time with a different reaction.
Giannis Grigorakos, Kifissia newspaper, September 2022

Makis Tsitas weaves his words with sympathy and understanding, he knits dialogue in an inventive way, he builds the right social settings, he creates an atmosphere that permits the presentation of antisocial or incomprehensible behaviour. Like an experienced psychoanalyst and someone deeply acquainted with the human soul, he brings to light obscure reasons, sets up the unpredictable moods that change for no reason, implying that the reason is always there, obscure, invisible, and active.
Anthoula Daniel, Avgi newspaper, 13/08/22

These ten stories could easily become plays. In fact, most of them already have. And when, God willing, they are restaged, I would like to be among the first watch them. To see the magic fly off the paper and become spoken words, hands that gesticulate, faces that change colour and expression. To see the magic become human.
How I admire Mr. Tsitas.
Kostas Koulis, noizy.gr, 30/06/22 

Tsitas exercises a clever critique of everything that is wrong with our era, human relationships and the gulf, not only between the generations, but more generally between human beings. With direct language, that is sometimes sarcastic, sometimes cynical, extremely realistic and descriptive, the writer transport us smoothly into the atmosphere of the stories, making us an inseparable part of them.
Kyriaki Ganiti, vivliovamon.blogspot, 07/06/22

With the many beautiful children’s books that Makis Tsitas has written, one has the feeling that he must have exhausted his tenderness and sensitivity. But that’s not true, because one is constantly discovering that under his sternest words, there is a sob, a caress, a tear of sympathy. […]
At the same time, the reader is drawn into the sphere of daily life, where there is no lack of humanity, poetic feeling and humour that at times can be bitter – elements that characterize Makis Tsitas’ writing and make him unique.
Maria Kotopouli, Peri Ou, 04/06/22 

Makis Tsitas, once again, surprises us with his beautiful and inventive writing. This time, using the speech of the theatre, he transports us in ten one-act plays that are so immediate and impressive and full of subtle, bittersweet humour about human relationships.
Dimitris Varvarigos, bookpress.gr, 30/05/22 

Critical Reviews

 

A kind of first-person re-writing of a popular autobiography, with emphasis on the psychological portrait of the humble heroine, now taken from the same social strata, with alternations of the narrative and confessional elements harmonized, according to the natural flow of the discourse. ... The author directs ingeniously, canonizing the polyphonic aesthetic -- visual and aural -- levels, like the cinematic lens sensitive to the detail unseen by the public eye, which magnifies the small poetically, gently, projecting the "whole" of the tragic. And always within the limits of the everyday human, invariably subjective, with its beauty and ugliness characterizing the humble, everyday images of life. "The closer expression comes to thought, the closer language coincides and merges with it, the more subtle the result," Balzac would write. Makis Tsitas’ "actor" writing has made it real. How? The word of his art is also inseparable from the word of life!
Vivi Kopsida-Vrettou, StigmaLogou, 23/07/2024

This book possesses a special feature. A male writer has a woman as the protagonist. Obviously Tsitas is not the first to do this. But what makes this novel special lies in the way the female voice is handled. If the reader didn’t know the sex of the author, they would easily suppose it to be a woman, because Tsitas dissects the heroine’s mentality with the precision, knowledge and eye for detail that only a woman could have accomplished with such familiarity and success.
Katerina Zamaria, Oropedio journal, winter 2023-2024 

An outstanding monologue that touches on the current tough reality of the predator and his prey, the antagonistic relationships of the sexes; the models particularly, that, by means of an extremely dramatic narrative, make the myth universal, completely familiar.
Five Stops is, without doubt, a highly sensitive work that distinguishes itself for its no-nonsense narrative, its inner sensitivity, its economies of setting.
Dimitris Manos, fractalart.gr, 27/07/22 

Tsitas has once again successfully probed deep into the psyche of his characters and describes their lives with great dexterity.
Philippos Philippou, de/kata journal, Spring 2022 

Five Stops is both a psychological portrait of an individual and an exceptionally graphic, precise and lucid Xray of society. We see the landscape, inside and out, through an attractively idiosyncratic prism, a kind of filter that intensifies the chiaroscuro and the outlines, revealing the folds and sharpening the shapes. The bas-relief of human tragicomedy is projected as something both familiar and unique with all the fascinating discords and pain of beauty.
Marion Horeanthi, vakxikon.gr, 20/12/21

How important it is that such books be written, which, apart from their gripping plot and narrative pleasure, are also spiritually uplifting and emotionally charged.
The art of eliminating the superfluous from a text is a talent, an ability that lends quality and strength to the written word. Tsitas appears to possess this art. He does not babble or ramble; He sticks to the essence. His writing is laconic yet rich, full of elements from the spoken word.
Niki Salpadimou, literature.gr, 16/09/21

The novel is impressive for its laconic style . . . Solid characters, comic elements, intense emotion, a monologue so deep and esoteric, that through Tasoula’s translucent soul one can see fragments of one’s own self.
Elpidoforos Intzembelis, Eleftheros Typos, 10/07/21 

In conclusion I would say that Five Stops confirms yet again Makis Tsitas’s rare literary talents; his skill at penetrating the soul of his heroes and heroines and his ability to describe the complex web of personal and interpersonal relationships, as shaped by social mores and the psyche of each individual. The author superbly portrays the struggle of his heroine to change her fate, indirectly implicating the importance of social mobility, an unattainable dream for so many . . . Makis Tsitas excels at creating a story and in the art and craft of Literature.
Christophoros Haralambakis, Hartis magazine, May 2021 

Tasoula is clearly a woman and a victim but she is also a person with enormous reservoirs of love. On reaching the end of the book, the reader can not but marvel at the magnanimity of her soul. The difficulties, the problems she confronts, do not manage even for a moment to spoil her frame of mind, or harden her heart. This is a book one reads in one go. The language is spare and simply but oh so real.
Angelina Papathanasiou, thematofylakes.gr, 31/05/21

Tasoula does not represent a paranoid monstrosity. She merely expresses the crushed heart of a woman who senselessly wasted her life, without fortunately being totally consumed by it.
Vangelis Hatzivasileiou, To Vima newspaper, 10/1/2021 

In his new work, the author devotes himself to what he knows how to do so brilliantly. He has created an amazing heroine who answers to the name Tasoula. Five Stops is a very powerful human narrative told in a wonderful and human way. Tsitas manages to embrace his heroine and, using the device of a monologue, gives her the first word.
Sideris Dioudis, Eleftheros Typos newspaper, 15/02/21  

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 has taken on the rather difficult job of reproducing not just Tassoula’s way of expressing herself in her monologue, but also to a large degree that of her husband. [. . . ] Furthermore, as noted earlier, the events, the climaxes, the silences are chosen with great care so that this life story will be clearly “heard,” while giving a picture of an era at the same time. Within this framework, I believe that the monologue has the possibility of doing well on stage.
Koula Adaloglou, culturebook.gr

“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

Critical Reviews

“…this is the contemporary Bible for the enamored in a picture book.”
Apostolos Pappos, elniplex.com, 11/02/17

“You read this book Again and Again, and then you offer it as a gift along with a dedication to your own Again; to the one you have or the one you wish you will find one day, to your other half or to an entire part of your own self, which has to be loved in order to be able to love in its turn […] Makis Tsitas’s The Again is a playful creature that looks like romantic love. You adore it. Mainly because it’s not perfect, even if it is a creature of divine nature. This is, perhaps, the reason why the illustrator dreamt of it as a perfectly round creature, with no sharp edges…”
Liana Denezaki, kosvoice.gr, June 2016

“Tsitas and Kalogeri, each in their own way, give us a great incentive to play a little bit and think more about the fact that what is most important of all is life itself. They make us consider that all problems have their solution, that the effort to solve them reinforces the buttresses that help us block any sort of collapse, and, finally, they make us think that if there is anything that is worth the trouble at all it is life itself, which always moves forward unimpeded.”
Anthoula Daniil, frear.gr, 22/02/16

“Imagination, inventiveness and originality are the words that best characterize Makis Tsitas’s playful little book. It is a book full of love, love for everyone, young and old, for children who dream about interpreting the… Again in their own way, but also for people who are in love. It is a book full of love for adults who discover their own desires, their Agains, and their weaknesses; their I’m-sorries, their maybes, their angers and their joys. It is a book full of love for the moments both small and great that will forever be replete with… Agains!”
Eleni Beteinaki, zhtunteanagnostes.blogspot.gr, 19/02/16

“This is such a cute ornament indeed! The book is playful and real, simple, lively, charming, deeply moving and didactic. The Again comes into our lives as a remedy for sadness, almost necessary in order to cheer us up and make our day… With The Again the author offers us a gift, an equally original, inventive, and inspiring story of deeds, a sauciness, a vivacity, a story created with simple ingredients for people who are in love and in-love-once-more, for those who will fall in love again, but also for those who will want to fall in love again and, and, and… It is a story about all those things that the Again is and all that it could be for our sake, but also all those things that we are and could be for it.”
Eleni Lintzaropoulou, propaganda.gr, 10/02/16

“The Again could be loved by a child for its playful hero, but in reality, it offers an adult the chance and reason to see everyday life through a different set of eyes.”
Manos Kontoleon, Bookia.gr, 08/02/16

“This is a one-of-a-kind tender book for people who are in love, although not solely for them.”
Dina Sarakinou, literature.gr, 23/01/16

“Makis Tsitas dares to speak about emotions that endure but are condemned to fight with a rather insensitive epoch and all the conveniences it favors. He dares to speak about our other half, the one that suits us and which we suit, the one who is devoted to us, our person, the one who is in love with us. He dares to speak about the creature that governs our lives with laws and rules of its own and unsettles us in the sweetest of ways. He names the creature Again, while Lila Kalogeri convivially impresses its image on paper, endowing it with flesh and bones. She gives it shape and color, and she renders it familiar in the eyes of the reader.”
Asimina Xirogianni, varelaki.blogspot.gr, 17/01/16

“The legendary Again is an ingenious book, a book to offer as a magical gift to your Again-Beloved-Man or your Again-Beloved-Woman, for them to have a magic birthday or name-day with The Again, and to read it Again and Again on every occasion that flows like water and flees once Again each time!”
Eleni Choreanthi, fractalart.gr, 06/01/16

“…Because The Again is a book that is interpreted differently by each reader, like a painting or a poem. And although many adults from my circle of acquaintances who read it have told me that the Again is love, romance, and even our own self, my son (4th grader) told me that the Again is 'mom'.”
Chrysa Kouraki, lesxhanagnosis.blogspot.gr, 08/02/16

“Again and again The Again resembles and reminds us of love, of apology, of consolation that is and has been, aiming to become the lighthouse in the lives of the living who love and are loved. It is a story that whether as a whole, or fragmented, promotes its Again which is there, front and center, ready to look you in the eye once more; then and only then will the reader wonder, only then look once again in the mirror in order to finally see himself/herself again, and manage to say to his/her partner all the things that he/she never speaks because of all the running all day long. Yet is also a book that can encourage the other to speak these words, or even encourage you to speak them to yourself.”
Elena Artzanidou, thinkfree.gr, 09/04/16

“The author Makis Tsitas was inspired this time by the most powerful of emotions, and in a rather insinuative manner he offers us, through his powerful, simple and playful style, a book that will help us express our love to our own Again.”
Ioanna Oikonomou, New Sage, 22/12/15

Critical Reviews

“The book is full of pithy descriptions and written in an intensely humorous tone. The author has paid considerable attention to representing the idiomatic expressions and manner of speaking of his characters, elements that present a novel approach to observing and capturing the morals and manners of life in the city.”
Alexis Ziras, Dictionary of Modern Greek Literature, Patakis Publications, 2007

“We are talking about a series of brief and light short stories that make one laugh out loud even when they deal with topics that are disagreeable […] It is a wonderful book!”
Be You magazine, October 1997

“The anthropological framework of Tsitas’s stories is defined by the petit-bourgeois neighborhoods of Thessaloniki or by their nearby rural towns, while the heroines and heroes he crafts are ordinary and familiar. Tsitas seems to possess a rather attentive pair of ears. Because he assimilates into his narration several idiolects: folk and youth slang, as well as trade-union expressions.”
Michelle Fais, Eleftheros Typos newspaper, 28/09/97

“…these are seventeen stories that are as lively as they are simple.”
Tilekontrol magazine, 13/09/97

“This is an uninhibited narration that becomes, at several points, catalytic. This kind of narration perfectly fits the lively figures and moments that parade through this book.”
Vangelis Athanasopoulos, Diavazo magazine, June 1997

“This is a well-written book. What the author wants to say, he says brilliantly. He essentially wants to describe life through humor and he manages to do so. And really, nothing more is needed: the greatest art is to know how to say a lot yet say only little, while the greatest narrative technique is to say just a few things and never omit the ones that are most important.”
Dinos Christianopoulos, Adesmeftos Typos newspaper, 18/12/96

“Makis Tsitas’s asset is solid prose […] In their ignorance, Tsitas’s protagonists remain entirely responsible for their deeds. This is a tremendous prize for the reader in a century of sleepwalking and flight.”
Giannis Plachouris, O Logos newspaper, 17/11/96

“In a rather singular way, the author manages to offer through his characters a graphic representation of contemporary Greek society.”
The Student Newspaper, November 1996

“Makis Tsitas clearly has all the perequisites needed by a literary talent”
Manos Kontoleon, Avgi tis Kyriakis newspaper, 25/08/96

“These seventeen shorts stories by the emerging author emanate humor and simplicity, and they establish an emotional bond between the reader and the heroes of the book. The characters, all of whom are graphically represented, become unexpectedly familiar and self-revealing.”
Danny Pierrou, Einai magazine, 06/08/96

“These seventeen shorts stories by the emerging author emanate humor and simplicity, and they establish an emotional bond between the reader and the heroes of the book. The characters, all of whom are graphically represented, become unexpectedly familiar and self-revealing.”
Politika Themata magazine, 26/07/96

“With this book Makis Tsitas lays an important foundation for the future.”
Filippos Filippou, Anti magazine, 05/07/96

“This is the first book of an author who was born only in 1971, and the bet seems to have been won.”
Nikos Bakounakis, Men magazine, June 1996

“A young, talented writer presents his first book.”
Perseas Athineos, Eleftheri Ora newspaper, 16/05/96

“The characters are powerful, real, and they captivate the reader, making you think that they are familiar to you […] Makis Tsitas (born in 1971) wrote these stories between 1989 and 1994. With this initial sample of writing, he declares the birth of an author.”
Titina Danelli, Rizospastis newspaper, 16/05/96

“Makis Tsitas’s seventeen short stories produce two emotions that every written story aspires to offer: entertainment and impatience for the next page as one keeps reading.”
Kostas Neofotistos, Politika Themata, 10/05/06

“The seventeen short stories of Makis Tsitas’s collection are equipped with an expressive straightforwardness, and very often they represent the linguistic code of today’s youth […] You get the impression that all Tsitas is narrating couldn’t have happened unless in these very neighborhoods, populated by these very people.”
Dimitris Daskalopoulos, Ta Nea newspaper, 07/05/96

“This is a book that is alive, a book that contains humor and smooth, comfortable language, which the younger generations in particular, as well as ages more advanced in terms of expression and thought, will like equally.”
Michalis Panas, To onoma newspaper, 27/04/96

“Makis Tsitas’s short stories are delightful and original […] the heroines and heroes of this book are absolutely ordinary and, at the same time, absolutely extraordinary people. This is precisely what makes them charming; the fact that they manage to combine the self-evident with the irrational, the acceptable with the unacceptable, logic with madness… And because the author has found the key that unlocks their hearts, but also because he has a good command of the way in which to pleasantly convey their thoughts, words, and deeds on paper.”
Kosmas Vidos, Slides magazine, Summer 1996

CRITICAL REVIEWS

 

The method by which Makis Tsitas excavates the internal and external world of his heroes resembles a multilevel passionate empirical research study in situ. With sincere empathetic mastery, focused on rendering the authenticity of his fiction, he accumulates materials that, when separated from the narrative whole, offer significant anthropological, historical, folkloric, sociological, linguistic . . . knowledge. The author himself, orchestrating all this experience, let’s say, of an interdisciplinary with empathy will reconstruct the conflicted inner landscape of his hero, burnt out from the start, in his predetermined course. And this will gradually deliver him into the incoherent world of the “flight of ideas”, where, in a climactic moment of schizoid self-reflection, he will abandon the traumatically experienced reality and escape into the pathology of a redemptive but tragic illusion.
Vivi Kopsida-Vrettou, StigmaLogou, 23/07/2024

It’s no coincidence that this book has become a classic in the genre. . . . And worth noting how perceptive the writer was regarding the crisis that befell Greece after it hosted the Olympic Games.
Giannis Pantazopoulos, Lifo, 21/03/23 

Makis Tsitas’s As God is my Witness, is one of the best novels of the decade. The author succeeds in presenting a very unusual hero, whose narrative voice will remain in our memory, like that of Raraou in The Mother of the Dog by Pavlos Matesis.
Eleni Papargyriou, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 09/02/20

Tsitas is among my favourite modern writers, first and foremost because he writes with humour. . . He reminds me of the black humour of Monty Python.
Viki Sgourelli, unspotted.gr, 11/06/22

This book has already won an important place in the history of modern Greek literature, as a classic work which portrays both the comic and pitiable side of human beings in a vivid, realistic way.
Toula Repapi, Eleftheros Typos, 04/04/22 

The whole novel rests on the fact that the writer is such an able craftsman of the spoken word and a talented manipulator of diverse narrative angles. He manages to create a self-contradictory hero, who with his pompous foolishness is a parody of a decisive host of the social stereotypes who darken our life.
Elisabeth Kotzia, Greek Prose 1974-2010/To Metro kai ta Stathma, Polis Editions, 2020

. . .in his phenomenal As God is my Witness, the book’s author once again shows himself to be an exceptional analyst of the human psyche.
Christophoros Haralambakis, Hartis magazine, May 2021

“Tsitas, master of the short form, inventive playwright, but also author of children’s books, has a uniquely accurate way of unveiling the components of the personality of the literary antihero, a lost, naïve, physically and emotionally violated human being, showing us his life with drastic humour by means of a confession in which the protagonist restructures his path towards paranoia.
This much discussed and widely translated book, which constitutes a prophetic prologue to Greece’s economic crisis, transports us to the time of the absolute euphoria of the Olympic Games, when either through naivety or indifference we failed to interpret the signals and did not foresee the bleak future of bankruptcy and despair that awaited the country.”
Eleni Lintzaroupoulou, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 11/10/20

“In the award-winning psychological novel God is my Witness, set just before the 2004 Olympics in Athens, the unemployed Chrysovalantis submits a daring – politically, existentially transformative – account of the Greece of pleasure-seeking, wheeling and dealing, nepotism, prejudice, bribes, loneliness, decline; a prophetic book, I would say, about the financial crisis that went on to shatter us, proof that only the writer who knows how to listen to the times can remove their masks before it’s too late.”
Giannis Plachouris, fractalart.gr, 08/09/20

“Tsitas has created a hero who will be difficult to forget.”
Tessy Baila, literature.gr, 30/07/20

“It is rare to see such a living creation nowadays. Such imposing speech, such pioneering technique, such successful mingling of the dramatic with the comedic, so deep the psychic dislocation, so emblematic of morbid and drowning idols and, at the same time, such realistic limitations that constrain the hero, without him being able to perceive them.”
Christos Papageorgiou, Ta Nea, 12/05/20

“I consider this book to be a literary leap that has been rewarded in the consciousness of the world and is a turning point in the literary history of the country.”
Grigoris Daniil, thebook.gr, 11/05/20

“Among the Greek novels that were published in the decade 2010 to 2019 is the book ‘As God is my Witness’... I think Makis Tsitas has managed to create a character who depicts a society... It is no surprise, then, the reception the work has received.”
Manos Kontoleon, Hartismag, May 2020

“Makis Tsitas’ book, forcefully tearing off the facade, reveals the boundless tragedy of a disturbed person in an irrational world, where recourse to the witness of God is the ultimate refuge of the hopeless in an hour when no one else is willing to listen....”
Anthoula Daniil, Kathimerini, 31/03/20

“Is the person a victim of circumstances, or is he himself responsible, blaming the social environment and situation as an alibi for his own choices and inabilities? A remarkable reversal that brings to light the guilty individual and lets it be understood that, behind the adversity and misfortune of his life he is, indeed, the one who is actually at fault.”
Dioni Dimitriadou, fractalart.gr, 18/03/20

“The republication of an important book.... It tenderly seduces us with a story in which, however much we may deny it, every one of us, or someone we know, can find a part of themselves. And it is this, which in the end, wins us over.”
Giouli Tsakalou, Athens Voice, 15/02/20

“This is a mirror on contemporary Greece, in which we see reflected: you and me, the person next to you, the man or woman next door, our guile, our loss of contact with reality, our sexual hunger disguised by a studied show of seriousness, our complexes, our multifarious prejudices, and our fantasies, which sometimes border on mental illness.”
Kostia Kontoleon, periou, 14/02/20

“One of the most important novels of the past decade.”
Apostolos Pappos, elniplex, 13/02/2020

“Rhythmically, and with crystal-like clarity from the beginning, with words that breathe through the text and that, initially, seem to speak breathlessly, [the book] manages to present in the psychological ups-and-downs and declarations of its hero, an atmosphere of social pathology, of false pride, the ethos of an entire era. With his absolute soul and vision, his tragicomic sufferings manage to illuminate the dark and enigmatic period that preceded the crisis and makes “God is my Witness” linger in your mind. Because Chrysovalantis lives in your head, tormenting and troubling you even after the end of his monologue, because even when the story finishes, nothing in fact ends. To the contrary, it may initiate a musical composition that carries on.”
Helene Gkika, liberal.gr, 03/02/20

“An accomplished writer, Makis Tsitas returns with a work crafted with extreme tenderness and worthy of merit, reconstructing the pieces of his shattered, timeless anti-hero, Chrysovalantis, as he emerges from the bowels of a modern, middle-class Greek family and contemporary society.”
Eleni Choreanthi, fractalart.gr, 28/01/20

“A book that disturbs the waters.”
Vaggelis Ioannou, irafina.gr, 27/01/20

“In a unique manner, and through his heroes, Makis Tsitas portrays the mentality of an entire generation, sketching the characteristics of the average modern Greek’s soul as they emerge and are projected, quite unaltered and unimproved, in the eyes of his hero and in his most intimate thoughts. Tsitas’s Chrysovalantis can be added to the club of the important anti-heroes, to the idiosyncratic company of the tragic figures of both poetry and prose alike, right next to Mariampa of the heretical and pioneering Chalcidian writer Giannis Skarimpas, and also right next to the equally charming heroes of Knut Hamsun, Johan Nagel and the mad dandy.”
Eftichia-Alexandra Loukidou, literature.gr, 12/03/18

“Mainly an author of children’s books, with his first novel Makis Tsitas scores a remarkable success in the crowded and vast literary arena.”
Christina Kollia, fractalart.gr, 22/06/16

“…A revelatory work in modern Greek literature.”
Yannis Vassilakakos, Neos Kosmos newspaper, 20 June 2016

“Very few literary heroes have given me such an astounding sense of the absolute shattering of innocence, at a time when nothing can save it. Like a Dostoyevskian figure, Makis Tsitas’s Chrysovalantis becomes the modern man’s conscience of everything he didn’t do or accomplish. Or rather, he becomes the guilty consciences of our anti-heroic age, which squeezes living beings helplessly.”
Maria Lampadaridou Pothou, fractalart.gr, 04/05/16

“One of the best novels of contemporary Greek literature…”
Nikos Bovolos, provocateur.gr, 15/12/2015

“The writing is expressive and is characterized by a striking ability to form language, which renders the reading of this book a pure pleasure.”
Angeliki-Eirini Mitsi in bookiα.gr, 05/12/15

“This is an absolutely unique novel compared to so many others that are currently available in the market.”
Dioni Dimitriadou, booktourmagazine.com, 13/10/15

“A smartly constructed outline and a masterfully structured plot, which presupposes a thorough knowledge of literature and a well-built foundation by the author.
Thomas Korovinis, Enteuktirio magazine, Issue 106, July-September 2015

“Makis Tsitas comes to surprise us with his mastery of prose, and to claim a permanent place in the constellation of contemporary Greek novelists.”
Konstantinos Bouras, grafei.wordpress, 10/06/15

“This is the most poetic analysis of our morbid, but also vital, nostalgia.”
Phoebos Delivorias, Athinomara magazine, 16/04/15

“This world of Don Quixotian delirium, and the fall of an otherwise benevolent, well-nourished man whose flesh is worldly, sinful and prone to pleasures, is offered to us unreservedly, mercilessly and with absolutely no shame by Makis Tsitas. An endeavor undertaken with remarkable mastery coupled with a skillful handling of narrative techniques, Tsitas’s effort yields a hero and his world, both of which are described with clarity and sharp humor on top of that.”
Vivi Diakogianni, tovivlio.net, 15/04/15

“Equipped with his penetrating humor and sharp irony, by means of his hero, one of the most unique heroes of contemporary Greek literature, Makis Tsitas outlines the inner most structures that dragged Greek society into the depths of a cultural crisis.”
Avgi newspaper, 06/02/15

“Even though the book was almost exclusively written before the 2004 Olympics, the images of a deserted Athens are irritatingly prophetic. For, equipped with the capacity to sense such changes, the author perceives them way before many others. Born in Giannitsa, and carrying the ethos of rural Greece, the author was able to see much more clearly the distortion that had gradually begun to affect the big cities one by one… Following the steps of Ioannou, Kechaidis and many more, Makis Tsitas managed in this book, a classic already, to imprint sheer reality.”
Dimitris Makridis, thebest.gr, 18/01/2015

“The reading of Makis Tsitas’s novel is a very pleasant experience. This is a wonderful monologue, taunting, dramatic, framed by an endless humor which succeeds quite remarkably in allowing the reader’s thoughts to teeter between the dramatic and the comic.”
Vassilis Moschis, Tharros newspaper, 16/01/15

“I felt that I had read a great book and an even greater novel, which I believe will become a classic. For only that which has been written with honesty, hard work and, above all, love for literature itself can become a classic.”
Nikos Vatopoulos, Kathimerini newspaper, 10/01/15

“Tsitas manages to create one of the most interesting characters of Greek literature in the past few years.”
Despoina Trivoli, huffingtonpost.gr, 31/12/14

“Serious, daring, and equipped with his intellectual humor, alternately teasing and charming, the author constantly coaxes a smile from his readers, consoles and charms them, both playing up and doing away with their gloom, offering them the chance to breathe, gently and casually, in between disasters. Without being either pompous or narcissistic, the author’s literary zeal offers us a fully worked wholeness, a beautiful combination of accuracy and depth, with no bombast and no excessive mannerisms. A true wordsmith, the author draws in readers to this great, linguistic party, while also lifting their spirits; he drags them to this feast of words, funny and full of desire and joy, but also, full of consciousness and vivid memory.”
Magda Tsirogianni, Thessalia newspaper, 28/12/14

“Makis Tsitas’s God Is My Witness (Kichli Publications) was the best book I read in 2014. The hero of the book is both tragic and hilarious. Although the topic of the book is, perhaps, rather gloomy, the reader will greatly enjoy every page.”
Christos Chomenidis, thetoc.gr, 14/12/14

“In short, God Is My Witness is worth the money. But also the prize it has been awarded, Chrysovalantis himself would claim with absolutely no hesitation.”
Giorgos Veis, Avgi newspaper, 23/11/14

“Tsitas breathes an air of sincerity into literature by having his character, Chrysovalantis, speak a language that the vast majority of the Greek society speaks without hesitation but which, unfortunately, another part of society politely listens to without being shocked. But there is also a third group in Greek society that is either displeased, or else smiles reservedly, every time it feels the limits of decorum have been transgressed.”
Anthoula Daniil, frear.gr, 29/10/14

“This is a masterfully written analysis of the inner world of the so-called Neo-Greek.”
Natassa Pavlopoulou, Eleftheros Typos newspaper, 19/10/14

“…And this is the greatest quality of Makis Tsitas’s novel, God Is My Witness, where he continues the long tradition of The Third Wedding Wreath and The Sound of the Trumpet. This is my own, personal triad of books that delve into our modern sense of Greek identity.”
Sotiris Pastakas, poiein.gr, 12/10/14

“With God as his witness – hence the title – and in a lively monologue balancing between the comic and the dramatic, Chrysovalantis touches upon human tragedy, upon society and its imminent crisis, as well as upon reality itself in a universal manner.”
Eleni Gkika, Ethnos newspaper, 09/10/14

“Behind the figure of the cowardly Chrysovalantis, a character who seems to have no willpower whatsoever, as well as in the hero’s inner landscape, the ingenious author definitely sees the image for what it is and offers a psychological profile of the contemporary Greek family and, more widely, of contemporary Greek society.”
Eleni Choreanthi, blog.public.gr, 09/10/14

“This hero-narrator is a very charming fellow. You can’t get enough of his words. Because he speaks to you, you do not simply read him.”
Stavroula G. Tsouprou, Nea Estia magazine, September 2014

“The book was published for the first time in 2013, winning the hearts of both critics and the public, and it now continues its successful run as one of the best and most on-target Greek novels of the last couple of years.”
Joytv.gr, 16/05/14

“The narration is flowing, almost theatrical, and the book is enjoyable and lively; in short, an exemplary piece of writing.”
Katerina Malakate, diavazontas.blogspot.gr, 13/05/14

“The book is not impressive solely due to the originality of its topic, plot development and the shaping of its central character, but also and primarily due to the literary quality of the text itself.”
Filippos Filippou, Odos Panos magazine, April-June 2014

“…This is, after all, the greatest success of an author whose book has been sought out and loved like few others this year: to have created the convincing portrait of a man of timeless value, who is neither a fighter nor a killer, neither likable nor loathsome, full of both flaws and fantasies, a man who tries to claim his share in life while living in an immoral, corrupt and abominable age, when all things fall apart.”
Evrytanika.gr, 24/04/14

“Written with humor, Tsitas’s book presents a man-river, a torrential figure, around whom the entire story revolves and lays bare the social aberrations of the so-called modern Greek.”
Tesi Baila, culturenow.gr, 22/04/14

“The hero, Chrysovalantis, is an eloquent and overflowing figure who was created with utmost craft, which is why he is so original. And his monologue is so grandiose, so full, real and lively at the same time, that he drags you into his world. And you can’t but listen to what he has to say!”
Assimina Ksirogianni, varelaki.blogspot.gr, 02/03/14

“The most masterfully written and funny Greek novel of the last few years.”
Byron Kritzas, popaganda.gr, 19/02/14

“In this novel, the author created an original character, who stands alone and alive in front of us!”
Patriarchis Fotios, vivliocafe.blogspot.gr, 10/02/14

“Chrysovalantis seems to be made out of the same literary ingredients that allow a hero to become a part of and remain in history.”
Toula Repapi, diavasame.gr, 05/02/14

“In a few words, this is a lively novel, flawless in terms of both technique and plot, capable of attracting the literary public, and also capable of triggering debate and discussion.”
Christos Papageorgiou, Frear magazine, December 2013

“What Tsitas achieved with this novel is to introduce a hero both unique and, at the same time, representative of the average man who has faced the common troubles of the last few years.”
Kostas Agorastos, bookpress.gr, 18/12/13

“In Makis Tsitas’s novel we will witness an a priori distorted and misshapen reality, having a 50-year-old man’s delirium as our vehicle: he is a face that depicts, by means of his psychotic reactions, the image of an entire society anchored to its own prejudices, confusion and conservatism, incapable of seeking any way out of the rabbit-hole in which it has been trapped. This is a book in which the collective is inextricably interwoven with the personal only to bring to the surface a lingering pathology: a pathology rooted in the deepest layers of our everyday life.”
Vanggelis Chatzivasileiou, oanagnostis.gr, 17/12/13

“Makis Tsitas’s first novel is considered to be the best novel of the year so far.”
To Vima newspaper, 15/12/13

“Makis Tsitas presents the shocking monologue of a 50-year-old unemployed man, the typical anti-hero of our everyday life, combining lively rhetoric with inventive language-formation.”
Aristotelis Sainis, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 14-15/12/13

“Makis Tsitas’s novel is a rather pleasant surprise for the reader. We are talking about a torrential monologue, a serious introspection into the life of an anonymous man, who tries to achieve self-definition by struggling with his various social dead-ends. The author uses his character’s ambivalent personality with an exceptional mastery, so much so that at the very end he absolves him through his humor and playful narrative speech.”
Katerina Karizoni, culturenow.gr, 09/12/13

“The author’s balance between the comic and dramatic style is admirable, for he manages to guide his poor hero sometimes towards the one and sometimes towards the other side of the line.”
Elena Maroutsou, literature.gr, 07/12/13

“This is a masterpiece in terms of style, whose hero is impossible to forget: aged 50, a loser, fat, pious, unemployed, oppressed, with many problems when it comes to his relations with women, a poetaster, but still, a man of humor, ironic and intellectually meticulous in his simplicity, Chrysovalantis wanders around Athens until he is entirely spent.”
Dimitris Fyssas, 9,84.gr, 06/12/13

“This is one of the best Greek novels, starring a typical anti-hero of our age, living in an alienated world.”
Tina Mandilara, People magazine, 28/11/13

“The ingenious book ‘As God is my Witness’ is a reflection of the Greek whom we all have ‘loved’ with the self-irony of the total book-troll. Chrysovalantis is the most notable hero of recent Greek literature.”
Foebos Delivorias, propaganda.gr, 12/11/13

“It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Chrysovalantis is the Greek version of Nikolai Gogol’s Acacius Akakievich, a humble scrivener, the one with the famous “coat” who, by means of his tragicomedy, criticizes the bureaucratic status quo and more generally social injustice in Russia. With the sole exception that Chrysovalantis does not simply criticize the status quo, but directly points to it and confronts it, hurling every single one of its facades to the ground.”
Anthoula Daniil, The Books’ Journal magazine, November 2013

“In his first novel, Tsitas achieves something remarkable. He moves his readers without forcing feelings upon them, equipped with his humor and his smooth, inventive, and enjoyable prose, through which he manages to create an emblematic contemporary character. Observing the particularities and apparent commonalities of the Greek petit-bourgeois, he speaks and conveys truths regarding the general condition of the Greek (and perhaps universal) state of being.”
Yiorgos Rompolas, Metropolis newspaper, 31/10/13

“The hero seems to become the thread that will unravel the… skein of our national drama: the beginning of the end of an incoherent and unbalanced society.”
Xenophon A. Brountzakis, To Pontiki newspaper, 31/10/13

“I truly enjoyed Makis Tsitas’s latest novel, God Is My Witness, and the reason for that is not only because Makis is a friend and I am a devoted reader of his children’s books despite of having aged way past the target-audience. Makis knows how to put the right word in the right place, whether we are talking about a brief, illustrated book for children or about a voluminous book that spans the history of contemporary Greece.”
Erika Athanasiou, Kifisia newspaper, 11/10/13

“This is, primarily, a sociopolitical text whose nightmarish realism confronts the reader with a reality that he/she has been avoiding in vain, by taking shelter in his/her personal microcosm.”
Giannis Kalogeropoulos, Eksostis magazine, 01/10/13

“This imaginative tragicomic monologue – whose use of expressive means is truly enviable – arrives to add one of the most lively and interesting heroes to our literature.”
Giannis Adamis, doctv.gr, 21/09/13

“Makis Tsitas, a very experienced author, was not afraid to play with notions that might still be considered taboos by our prudish society. He appropriately manages his word-tools with abundant mastery and transmits feelings and states of being of a rather troubled character, who might occasionally overreact, but who still could be the man next door. Tsitas uses the Greek language in an exemplary way, while his play with words and notions embellishes his writing, since he pushes both to their limits, testing their dynamics one word at a time.”
Lydia Psaradelli, newsage.gr 21/09/13

“…Because Tsitas not only created a new literary type – at least compared to the literary standards of the last twenty years – and not only tapped the pulse of this traditional, Greek society, one that is still swayed by the most conservative, dark and old-fashioned stereotypes, but he also succeeded in appropriating its hackneyed phrases and language. To such an extent that he manages to subvert, ridicule and transform the latter into black humor.”
Elena Houzouri, oanagnostis.gr, 19/09/13

“The author brings together masterfully the tragic and the comic without either one of them losing its independence; he combines introspection with social critique and the cinematic melodrama of the 1950s without becoming heavy, didactic or melodramatic.”
Mary Tsaknaki-Gavala, Thessalia newspaper, 03/09/13

“This work offers an accurate psychological portrait of the modern Greek, with whatever lies at the bottom of his philosophy, which Tsitas has constructed out of the diverse manifestations of the reality surrounding us, relieving with humor the dark circumstances. A hero (or anti-hero) who cannot be forgotten.”
Maria Stasinopoulou, Efimerida ton Syntakton, 01/09/13

“Built like an endless internal monologue that progressively climaxes as new pixels are constantly added to the narrator-hero’s portrait, Tsitas’s novel is reminiscent of a musical composition that does not, on the one hand, present diatonic or chromatic alterations, but on the other hand is guided through its lethargically repeated motifs toward an evocative and absolutely dramatic crescendo that climaxes with a violent final scream – a scream of existential exhaustion.”
Katerina Schina, The Books’ Journal magazine, August 2013

“The economy of language, the balanced weighting of every sentence, the rhythm of each phrase, and the theatricality, all of which are elements that characterize Makis Tsitas’s early prose writing, are presented here refined and mastered.”
Lamprini Kouzeli, To Vima newspaper, 18/08/13

“The spiral first-person narration stands out as the strongest feature of this text. The author moves subtly from the present to the immediate past and from there to the childhood of the hero, revealing the root of the problem, which borders on psychopathology.”
Giannis Stamos, Eleftherotypia newspaper, 16/08/13

“The descriptions of the hero, his interpretations and evaluations, particularly through his word choices, conclusions and neologisms, trigger a reaction that ranges from a subtle smile to a hearty laugh.”
Titika Dimitroula, Kathimarini newspaper, 04/08/13

“The novel God Is My Witness draws in its readers like a magnet: it will be read without interruption from the first sentence to the last. Such an original piece of literature is a delight that speaks to and penetrates deep inside one’s heart, illuminating dark aspects, abyssal desires and stormy relationships. Everything is exciting – and so dramatic; well-balanced in terms of plot and narrative flow, down to every detail and every word.”
Alexandra Bakonika, Mandragoras magazine

“In Makis Tsitas’s enjoyable book the reader teeters between comedy and tragedy, pity and abhorrence, because the anti-hero Chrysovalantis presents and exposes a society full of hypocrisy, acting within a space reminiscent of an absurdist theatrical production. The hero both plays his part and confesses. His torrential confession, in fact, mirrors a man who loses himself due to self-contradiction. Chrysovalantis is a victim of his own self and of his own conflicting demands.”
Maria Rousaki, enavivlio.blogspot.gr

“This is a masterpiece by Kichli Publications.”
Anastasia Kiseliova, lifespeed.gr