Pavlos Matesis, a prize-winning Greek playwright, novelist and translator, passed away on January 20, at age 80.

Matesis made his literary debut in 1967 with the play The Ceremony, for which he received a State Theatre Award. He wrote the script for two television series, shown on Greek state television (1974-76) and a number of novels, novellas and short stories.

His novel The Daughter, an international bestseller in nine languages, was awarded the 2002 Giuseppe Acerbi Literary Prize. Its theatrical adaptation was staged at the National Theatre of Greece, as have most of his plays, several of which have also been performed abroad. Matessis was honoured with the Grand Critics’ Theatre Prize in 2000.

He has translated works by Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Moliere, Harold Pinter and William Faulkner into Greek, and has had his works translated in 10 languages; The Daughter and a collection of plays have been translated into English.