The Mud

The Mud is a novel about a man trying to define his place in the world in the face of opposition, both imaginary and real. Alexandros or Santo, a second-generation economic migrant raised in Greece, returns to Athens following a year’s absence, a self-imposed exile for a murder he has committed. He has three days to wander the streets of Athens, the city reeling under the financial crisis, before he carries out his plan to commit suicide on his 28th birthday. In the days between his return and his planned suicide, he reconstructs in thought and speech incidents, experiences and people in his life, both past and present, as he plans to meet his mother, sister and girlfriend for one last time. Through monologues and interspersed dialogue, he gradually reveals his deeper motives and desires, his view of the world and mankind, as well as the events that have shaped his thoughts and actions. He is a man who grabs at life with tooth and claw, enraged and bitter but with a sharp sense of humor, even when life is at its most dramatic. His speech is intense, frequently a verbal paroxysm of unfiltered thought, blending past, present and future in a flowing outpour that sets a murky, harsh backdrop through which he tries to find cracks of brightness and meaning. Alexandros is a young man of his time, fully adjusted to his social environment, but who examines his existence from a perspective of timelessness rather than looking at it as a product of his time. Many aspects of this examination might be the result of his identity as an immigrant, but that is only one of the factors that have shaped him, along with his genetic predisposition, his family and his social and economic status. In a way, that is also the central theme of the book: man as a lone figure who tries to withstand different and conflicting forces, caught between his internal state and external circumstances.