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Five great books set in GREECE

30th May 2020

Greece is the latest place for us to visit in our ‘Great books set in…’ series. Five Great Books set in Greece.

It takes a lifetime for someone to discover Greece, but it only takes an instance to fall in love with her’ –– Henry Miller

Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis – set on CRETE

Set before the start of the First World War, this moving fable sees a young English writer set out to Crete to claim a small inheritance. But when he arrives, he meets Alexis Zorba, a middle-aged Greek man with a zest for life. Zorba has had a family and many lovers, has fought in the Balkan wars, has lived and loved – he is a simple but deep man who lives every moment fully and without shame.

As their friendship develops, the Englishman is gradually won over, transformed and inspired along with the reader.

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The Magus by John Fowles – set on SPETSES

On a remote Greek Island, Nicholas Urfe finds himself embroiled in the deceptions of a master trickster. As reality and illusion intertwine, Urfe is caught up in the darkest of psychological games.

John Fowles expertly unfolds a tale that is lush with over-powering imagery in a spellbinding exploration of human complexities. By turns disturbing, thrilling and seductive, The Magus is a feast for the mind and the senses.

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Beautiful Animals by Lawrence Osborne – set on HYDRA

On a hike during a white-hot summer break on the Greek island of Hydra, Naomi and Samantha make a startling discovery: a man named Faoud, sleeping heavily, exposed to the elements, but still alive. Naomi, the daughter of a wealthy British art collector who has owned a villa in the exclusive hills for decades, convinces Sam, a younger American girl on vacation with her family, to help this stranger.

As the two women learn more about the man, a migrant from Syria and a casualty of the crisis raging across the Aegean Sea, their own burgeoning friendship intensifies. But when their seemingly simple plan to help Faoud unravels all must face the horrific consequences they have set in motion.

In this brilliant psychological study of manipulation and greed, Lawrence Osborne explores the dark heart of friendship, and shows just how often the road to hell is paved with the best of intentions.

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Afternoons in Ithaka by Spiri Tsintziras – set on ITHAKA

A charming memoir of self-discovery, family, connection and the power of a tomato. ‘I remember crusty just-baked bread, rubbed with juicy tomato flesh, swimming in a puddle of thick green olive oil. I am seven years old. I sit on a stool in my grandmother’s house. It is the height of summer in a seaside village in the south of Greece. We little Aussies devour ‘tomato sandwiches’ as the family chats and laughs and swats flies …’

From the first heady taste of tomatoes on home-baked bread in her mother’s village in Petalidi, to sitting at a taverna some 30 years later in Ithaka with her young family, Spiri Tsintziras goes on a culinary, creative and spiritual journey that propels her back and forth between Europe and Australia. These evocative, funny and poignant stories explore how food and culture, language and music, and people and their stories help to create a sense of meaning and identity.

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Roumeli: Travels in Northern Greece by Patrick Leigh Fermor – set in NORTHERN GREECE

Patrick Leigh Fermor’s ‘Mani’ compellingly revealed a hidden world of Southern Greece and its past. Its northern counterpart takes the reader among Sarakatsan shepherds, the monasteries of Meteora and the villages of Krakora, among itinerant pedlars and beggars, and even tracks down at Missolonghi a pair of Byron’s slippers.

‘Roumeli’ is not on modern maps: it is the ancient name for the lands from the Bosphorus to the Adriatic and from Macedonia to the Gulf of Corinth. But it is the perfect, evocative name for the Greece that Fermor captures in writing that carries throughout his trademark vividness of description.

But what is more, the pictures of people, traditions and landscapes that he creates on the page are imbued with an intimate understanding of Greece and its history.

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Which is your favourite book to transport you to Greece? Do tell us in the comments below! And if you fancy more reads set in this magical part of Europe, then just access the Tripfiction database

Andrew for the TripFiction Team

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Check out all the books we have in our database set in Greece

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Comments

  1. User: Angela Savage

    Posted on: 08/06/2020 at 4:58 am

    I have a soft spot for ‘Captain Corelli’s Mandolin’ by British writer Louis de Bernières, set on the Greek island of Cephalonia during the Italian and German occupation of the Second World War.

    I also recently bought, but have yet to read ‘The Sponge Divers’ by Charmian Clift and George Johnston, centred around the Greek island of Kalymnos.

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    1 Comment

    • User: tripfiction

      Posted on: 08/06/2020 at 7:44 am

      It is so transportive, isn’t it…

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