The Mule's Foal

A Mules Foal is an impossible birth.

So what is this impossible birth about? The inhabitants of three houses in a Greek Village, their lives and their interactions with each other, with their fellow villagers and various others who at times pass through. Specific reference must be made to the child born a gorilla, he is a very important character in village life.

Lots and lots of weird things happen in this absurdist journey. That journey is told by an ageing prostitute who runs the local brothel. Sounds simple? Not the way this story is told. Men turn into woman and back again. One woman turns into a bear to eat her mother-in-law. Weird events keep on happening. Is this fantasy and/or magic realism or just a figment of the imagination of the narrator? I have no idea, but I was enthralled from the beginning to the end.

Typical of these type of absurdist style fantasies, there is going to be a readership that either loves it and another that just don't get it and moves on. Me? I loved it. I just got involved and laughed at the absurdity of it all. But was it absurd?

First published in 1993, from what I can see the author, Fontini Epanomitis, has not written another book since. It is said that everyone has one novel in them, and maybe this was it. Fontini wrote that the “Words borrowed from family and friends I return with thanks” A very sparse wiki says that her parents were migrants to Perth Australia from Northern Greece where Fontini grew up except for a year spent on her relative's Greek farm when she was twelve. Maybe that was the point, all those tall tales and gossip told by families has this book made.

Recommended to those that like it, odd, illogical, weird and humorous.