The first book of the excellent literary artist and translator Ms.Kati Economou (1955-2014) in a reissue now, originally published in a pre-crisis period, today shocks us with its narrative intelligence and topical plot.

The story is about the Petropoulou family, a middle-class family, when they are rising financially with the commercial enterprise they open after the post-war period. However, the mass consumption of large shopping centres in the form of malls, which flooded the Greek market especially at the beginning of the 21^no century, forcing the family to sell their house in Nea Kifissia. Sickness and death knock on the door for Lina's father and her mother will lose her life in an accident. Lina is left tragically alone with a single support Kiki, a friend of her father's from long ago, who essentially helps her raise her child because her father, also a student, is doing a PhD in England and relationships have broken down. The child's biologist father, little Harry, reappears seven years later, once Lina has found steady work and is struggling to get back on her feet. Her new relationship with Peter is not an idyllic one, but a serious one, which is why Peter does not forgive the presence of the child's father. Nick claims his child, but without any confirmation as to paternity, except for the obvious outward resemblance, which is probably enough. Nick's upper-class background with a judge father, doctor sister and university professor father now requires him to claim his son and he succeeds as Peter is eventually removed.

The novel is not romantic, on the contrary, it has many elements of realism and an intense, ethnographic description of the economic and social circumstances in Greece in the 21st century.^no century. Our country has lost many of the classless elements at the end of the twentieth century, especially after the rise of the socialist party in the government of the country from 1981 onwards, when the upward trend of everything allowed us to be happy. As a child of the years of Change, Lina experienced prosperity, but also decline at a critical age. After finishing high school, she entered the Technical University in the most highly ranked and admission competitive school of Greek higher education in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA). But without ever studying systematically, as she had to work as a secretary in a factory to survive. Seven years later the past reappeared to stay in her life more properly. Clearly a Bildungsroman with strong features of a teenage novel structured by the protagonists in two parts, the first part is about Lina (chapters 1-8) and Niko (chapters 9-15) and the second part is about Peter (chapters 16-23) and of course Harry (chapters 24-33).

The partial emphasis on persons constitutes a novelty in the narrative as the camera of the narrative zooms in on the individual central person, either Lina or Nikos, or Peter or Harry, who understandably occupies the largest part, almost 1/3 of the well-written novel. Little Harry's sudden surgery will bond the young couple further and they will be reintroduced on equal terms this time. The ending is left open with a clear indication of a reunion. This promise is perfectly natural given that there is love and a child with dominant characteristics. Lina has been in love with Niko since her teenage years, having known each other since childhood as their homes were adjacent on Antheon Street. Little Lina found room to play on the large veranda of the garden of the Vranas' neighbours, and later in the wooden garden house with its full mulberry trees, as Nikos the son of the family lived there against the bourgeois family which was also in stark contrast to her own background.

Apart from the economic issue, the other issue to be negotiated is gender both as a role (mother) and as a social class (single mother), without a husband or family structure behind her. This is an unpredictable novel in terms of plot, with a very strong central heroine, probably a role model for many contemporary issues, who can say «no» to everything that girls today usually say «yes» unequivocally. A possible proposal for a film adaptation would be successful or even a TV series with claims of current relevance to social as well as political-economic issues of the 21st century^no century in Greece, which, unfortunately, has failed for the umpteenth time in its history. The story of Lina and Charis as well as the life of Nikos and Peter are links in the chain of the same narrative that impresses with its style, dramatic development and the correct psychographic portrayal of the personalities, probably in extremely realistic relationships.

Katie Economou passed away prematurely after losing her battle with cancer in 2014, but having already published eight novels. A professional translator, she became known for her work since 1987 as a translator from English and especially as the translator of Harry Potter into Greek. This is her original work of fiction, a fine novel with merit, by a writer who has a solid commitment to matters of narrative technique, unique surprises and no twists. Overall The Garden with the mulberry trees is a realistic Bildungsroman from the beginning of the new millennium, in the crisis before the crisis, and therefore an approach to the complexity of contemporary lives.