A book is a journey; in time, space, in the depths of the soul; a point of junction and a dialogue between fantasy and reality.
The great Greek litterateurs and poets take us to an uncharted state where there are no laws or borders.
These masterpieces of Greek poetry and literature become the vehicle for a journey from which, when the soul returns, it has taken wings to fly.
1. Zorba the Greek -Nikos Kazantzakis
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.
2. Life in the tomb- Stratis Myrivilis
«Life in the Tomb», a war novel written in journal form by a sergeant in the trenches, has been the single most successful and widely read serious work of fiction in Greece since its publication in serial form in 1923-1924, having sold more than 80,000 copies in book form. Published in nearly a dozen translations, it is the first volume of a trilogy containing «The Mermaid Madonna» and «The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes», both of which have been available in a variety of languages. «Life in the Tomb» has moments of great literary beauty and of more than one kind of literary power.
3. The Great Chimera- M.Karagatsis
Eager to flee the parochialism of her French upbringing, and a painful family past, the young and beautiful Marina falls in love with a seductive Greek sea-captain she meets at the port of Rouen. She follows him to the Aegean island of Syros to begin a new life as a married woman in the home of her formidable mother-in-law.
4. The Murderess -Alexandros Papadiamantis
The Murderess is a bone-chilling tale of crime and punishment with the dark beauty of a backwoods ballad. Set on the dirt-poor Aegean island of Skiathos, it is the story of Hadoula, an old woman living on the margins of society and at the outer limits of respectability.
5. A tale without a name- Penelope Delta
An enchanting powerful fable as timely today as on first publication a century ago. The kingdom used to be a place of paved roads and well-filled coffers, with joy and the good life all around. But the old king went the way of all flesh years ago, and now the kingdom is derelict, a land of wickedness and ruin. But a young prince and his sister begin to see what must be done, and-if they can-to restore what has been lost.
6. The Axion Esti-Odysseas Elytis
When Odysseus Elytis was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy’s citation singled out “The Axion Esti”, first published in 1959, as ‘one of twentieth-century literature’s most concentrated and richly faceted poems.’ It can be seen both as a secular oratorio, reflecting the Greek heritage and the country’s revolutionary spirit, and also as a kind of autobiography, in which the spiritual roots of the poet’s very individual sensibility are set in the wider philosophical context of the Greek tradition.
7. Christ Recrucified-A Novel-Nikos Kazantzakis
The inhabitants of a Greek village, ruled by the Turks, plan to enact the life of Christ in a mystery play but are overwhelmed by their task. A group of refugees, fleeing from the ruins of their plundered homes, arrive asking for protection – and suddenly the drama of the Passion becomes reality.
8. Diaries of Exile-Yannis Ritsos
Yannis Ritsos is a poet whose writing life is entwined with the contemporary history of his homeland. Nowhere is this more apparent than in this volume, which presents a series of three diaries in poetry that Ritsos wrote between 1948 and 1950, during and just after the Greek Civil War, while a political prisoner first on the island of Limnos and then at the infamous camp on Makronisos. Even in this darkest of times, Ritsos dedicated his days to poetry, trusting in writing and in art as collective endeavours capable of resisting oppression and bringing people together across distance and time.
9. Wildcat under Glass-Alki Zei
The story is set on an island in Greece during the 1930’s as the nation is forced into a Fascist dictatorship. It is told through the eyes of a young girl named Melia, who relates the experiences of her family as they are forced to accept life under a repressive government. The book provides an interesting look at an important period of Greek history and tells it from a child’s perspective.
10. Drifting cities- Stratis Tsirkas
This is the saga of three cities: Jerusalem, Cairo and Alexandria, three cities drifting toward chaos in a war-torn Middle East. At its centre is Manos: a poet, lover of life, man of intellect and integrity, and hero of the Greek war against the Italian invasion, but who now deserts the national army to join the leftists in their clandestine struggle against the Greek fascists and royalists.
Source : travel.gr
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