July 6th, 2022 : Papadiamantis is a genius. This is such a stirring, fun, beautiful, and unsettling novel. The author went on to spend decades writing nothing but short stories, of which I've read one, which in its page and a half blew me away and brought me to tears and gave me that "all bow down" feeling that comes around only when I discover a seriously great writer. But then, I'd already had that feeling reading The Gypsy Girl. It's fascinating... it's laugh out loud funny... it's tender and sweet... it's chilling... it's mysterious... it sends you running to Wikipedia and historical articles... what more could you want?! Absolutely incredible dialogues, possibly some of the most delightful in world literature? Yeah, this has those too.