“The fascinating part when one reads a fairy tale is the feeling that one actually takes part in this fairy tale, like an additional hero who silently follows the action. If the additional hero happens to be a woman, she will devour ‘Dust of day’ without a moment’s pause…The most important thing is that the book holds you captive, and you don’t feel, not for a minute, that the author has lost her pace, her structure or her truth, for that matter…” (Extract from a one-page-long review)
Newspaper NEA, May 24-25 2003. By Haris Pontida.
“This book, ‘Dust of a day’, is a travelogue in the life of a woman through the 20th century till today. Or even till tomorrow…Smart writing, cynically real, with insights and depth of character(s), and with equally insightful or deep looks at historical events, even if these events are in the background…This is the proof that when a book that could be called ‘historical novel’ treats history as part of our lives, it can be really captivating in all sorts of ways…”
Magazine NITRO, Aug 30, 2003, by M.M.
“The author has the gift of absolute immediacy. And in ‘Dust’ we relish the rhythm and the ‘aliveness’ of the story-telling, the fact that we’re literally hanging from the writer’s lips, or pen, wanting to know what life holds in store for regal Elisabeth and her servants, when all together they take the road to exile.” (Extract from a half-page review)
Newspaper KATHIMERINI, Oct. 5, 2003. By Elisabeth Kotzia.
“Women come and go through the dust of History, and they cross a whole century, from 1910 to today. Adrianople, Athens, England, Finland, and the author takes a deep plunge in life, with a contemporary language and storytelling that holds the reader captive for the whole ride”.
Magazine MARIE CLAIRE, Aug. 2003. By Nikos Bakounakis.
“Sophie, Elisabeth, Sissy, Effie – these are women who fall in love, have children, live and breathe, while the world around them is changing and a country tries to invent itself. The best part with MZ’s books are that although the heroines are always women, nevertheless all men seem quite happy to read them…”
Magazine DOWN TOWN, Sept 2003.
“…a perfectly composed travelogue in time and space, stepping with one foot on Time and with the other foot on Man. Reads like a diary, funny, cynical, sometimes nostalgic or emotionally charged, but with the certainty that whatever makes a story worth telling, is life itself…MZ has a sort of intravenous talent that won’t let you catch your breath…”
Newspaper HMERHSIA (Daily), Aug 13, 2003. By M.K.
“A book we loved and you will love too, by ‘our own’ Manina Zoumboulaki: a story of women through a century, written so succulently that you feel the heroines are breathing next door, or under your skin. A summer ‘must’ that will stick with you well beyond this summer, or the next…Some books are great but they ‘fall through the cracks’. This is one book that should not, no matter what, be forgotten.”
Magazine ELLE, Aug. 2003.
“I read her books non-stop, slumped in a sweet addiction. My mind finds wrongs, or mistakes, but my heart? I am devouring the pages and at the same time I am sorry that in a little while, I will be out of reading material….The sure thing is, I’m going to hold on for her next book. Because I’m addicted to Manina’s writing by now.”
Newspaper VHMA, Aug 2003. By Vaggelis Raftopoulos. (This one- page-long article is included in a book, written by Raftopoulos, published in 2005 by Pataki Publications, with the title “A sort history of New Greek Literature”. It inspired a blog entitled “Addicted to Manina Zoumboulaki”.)
