Prominent Greek author Alexandra Symeonidou’s autobiographical novel Merciless Struggle has been recently released on Amazon after recent translation into English. Merciless Struggle is Symeonidou’s second novel in her self-written trilogy which gives readers access deep into the personal torture endured by Symeonidou during and succeeding her marriage with an important Saudi man.
Following the trilogy’s first novel, Merciless Struggle pursues Symeonidou’s life after her escape from Saudi Arabia, from her very first day of return back to Athens and the struggle that followed.
A sustainable life was not easy for Symeonidou upon returning to Athens. Returning to Greece pregnant would mean a further 20-year battle with Saudi Arabian authorities, to legitimate the rights of her son and to allow him to remain in Athens with her. Symeonidou describes the novel as an ‘odyssey’ of the struggles, risks and strengths she endured in order to keep her son in Greece.
“I spent almost 20 years of my life, insisting with all my force to finalise my divorce and to protect my son from all the danger of his father,” Symeonidou tells Neos Kosmos.
The novel, however, is also believed by Symeonidou to be a reflection of her success in not only protecting her son, but in producing almost a ‘magna carta’ of rights for all women who have faced or who are currently facing the same issues. “The book deals with women’s rights against a fundamentalist country where I believe the woman’s status barely exists.”
Merciless Struggle is not only a charming ode to the eternal, endless and strengthening force of a mother’s love for her child, but also stands as a reinforcement of the importance of women’s rights, as well as the importance of the written word as an emotional alleviation of mental trauma caused by a distressing event.