God is my witness

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