The Little Word Love
I learned to paint myself to hide the bruises.
Madia was taught violence from a young age: she saw it in her mother's swollen face, she endured it at the hands of her father, who was the law in the house.
She grew up defenseless: in her hometown, a small town in Imathia, people did not interfere in other people's family affairs.
So when, at eighteen, she meets Akis, a philologist from Thessaloniki, she decides to run away. To seek tenderness, independence – to live free without fear, pain and shame.
But violence has many faces, and before love breaks, Mandia knows the worst of all: what pretends to be love.
On the other side of life, she recounts her trials and joys, the gifts that fate gave her and stole from her. She talks about what she did and what she regretted, about the strength she found within herself even in the throes of despair.
A story about the savagery next door and the cost of survival.
For love, which needs sacrifices so that it is not just a word.
