{"id":1872,"date":"2026-01-16T19:13:38","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T17:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diamantoula-t.com\/?p=1872"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:05:39","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T13:05:39","slug":"january-2026-sharing-her-apples-an-assessment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diamantoula-t.com\/en\/january-2026-sharing-her-apples-an-assessment\/","title":{"rendered":"January 2026, ‘Sharing Her Apples’ – An Assessment"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2018SHARING HER APPLES\u2019: Assessment <\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d say, 2025 was a good, and peaceful year for me, and has initiated new hopes for a fuller life within the writing and publishing activity:<\/p>\n

The self-publishing of my first novel \u2018Sharing Her Apples, both in English (in 2024) and in Greek in 2025, via Fylatos Publishing has been an on-going adventure and much to my surprise the process was smooth, and successful; thanks to the professionalism, the excellent collaboration and the continues support I have enjoyed by the publishers.<\/p>\n

Among other things, I wish and hope for 2026 is that some of the literary agents who have sidestepped my queries for my \u2018Sharing Her Apples\u2019, would now read the book and perhaps make a few critical comments.<\/p>\n

The Greek version of the novel has also been well received by the Greek public. There were 2 presentations of the book, the second one in Athens, and it has had some valuable reviews, one of which I\u2019d like to share with you here bellow.<\/p>\n

quote<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Sharing Her Apples\u2019, a Critical Presentation, by Theodore Papadatos, Lawyer,<\/strong><\/p>\n

13 December 2025, at Enastron Book-Caf\u00e9, Athens<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cA lot can be really said about the book.<\/p>\n

The psychological perspective and the character conflicts were previously analyzed: Human emotions, the concept of betrayal, revenge and redemption, frustrations (personal or collective), the vulnerability of women, the horror of war and a series of other elements that have already been discussed.<\/p>\n

I will try to approach the novel from a different perspective.<\/p>\n

In my reading,\u2019 Sharing Her Apples\u2019 by Diamantoula Triantafyllou moves between literature, historical record (even implicitly), and human ethics. Or, to put it better, the timeless conflict between Law and Ethics. In this sense, the author’s professional background is also evident, where she draws inspiration from real court records of the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia), from real war crimes trials.<\/p>\n

By illuminating the lives of two women – Helen and Katarina – and through their personal paths (parallel paths that ultimately intersect), the book also functions, above all else, as a historical archive. Through Katarina’s micro-story, the historical palimpsest of the Balkans is vividly illustrated. The dissolution of Yugoslavia, the 1992 referendum, the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo constitutes the historical background that is not described bluntly in the book, but is experienced through Katarina.<\/p>\n

The borderline era where \u201cthe war simmers\u201d (borrowing the author\u2019s expression \u2013 a phrase that condenses the feeling of the period) and which ultimately leads to the collapse of the former Yugoslavia. We are shortly after the death of Tito. A death that deprived Yugoslavia of its main unifying force. As a result, ethnic tensions then begin to develop. And this becomes clear in the book. I recall the image that Ms. Triantafyllou gives us with the distinction of students in school classes based on ethnic criteria.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, we travel to Doves Square, where we see the old Yugoslavia, a mixed and vibrant society. We learn about the demographic structure of Bosnia, which consisted of a mixed population of Bosnians (with various religious characteristics) and strong minorities of Serbs and Croats. About the ideas of Greater Serbia that developed and, ultimately, the political and ethnic antagonism that led to the Dissolution of the former Yugoslavia.<\/p>\n

However, with the collapse of Yugoslavia, relationships, trust, boundaries, and laws also collapse. Something that becomes clear from Katarina’s testimony: the “inscription” of history within the heroine’s human experience and the consequences it has for her, and the subsequent course of her life. Katarina carries her injuries not only as personal wounds, but as an informal archive of History. In her body and soul, events that later become History (with a capital letter) and of course serious legal cases (see the author’s inspirational background), have been imprinted, but at the moment they happen, are simply pain, fear and experienced injustice.<\/p>\n

In the internal refugees\u2019 camps, uprooting is recorded. In the Relief Center, the trivialization of human nature.<\/p>\n

(I open a parenthesis \u2013 the most shocking, I think, scene of the novel \u2013 conveys to us the \u201chuman dimension of the inhuman\u201d. Here Ms. Triantafyllou uses literature as an anti-silence, to remember Primo Levi, resisting the oblivion of trauma.)<\/p>\n

In the pages of the prison, the collapse of institutions after the war. The example of prison guards receiving \u201cadditional remuneration\u201d with the tacit consent of the director, illuminates a system where institutions have completely disintegrated and only personal interests survive.<\/p>\n

And here I am led to the second problematic of the book. What does Justice mean and what are its limits? Deeper questions that the novel brings to the fore.<\/p>\n

How this institutional weakness pushes Katarina to seek \u201cjustice\u201d on her own \u2014 even when her path becomes destructive. How war, poverty, exploitation and violence eroded her moral compass. When her world collapses, law does not protect her.<\/p>\n

And on the other hand, Helen (and her relationship with Annie) as the book\u2019s bright counterweight: Where the law cannot deliver justice, human action restores it.<\/p>\n

As the heroines\u2019 stories intertwine, we explore the boundaries between justice and self-justice, compassion and madness, law and the human need for meaning. The book shows us that where institutional law fails, there, perhaps the Moral and the Human emerge.<\/p>\n

And all this, an in my opinion rightly so, without the author taking a clear position. Besides, literature has the right not to decide, to leave the case pending, to shift the responsibility to the reader.<\/p>\n

The author exploits the tension that arises in each such situation, as a scheme, to present a deeper reflection on the human condition; the link between morality-law, conscience-law. Questioning the \u201cinstrumental\u201d and strict application of the Law, highlighting the Moral indifference or the crisis of the system, we are invited to reflect on the transition from individual anger to the collective need for justice.<\/p>\n

In closing, \u2018Sharing\u00a0 Her Apples\u2019 is not only a war story or a story of two women. It is a work with multiple axes:<\/p>\n