Greek Literature in English – FICTION

Haviaras, Stratis. When the Tree Sings. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979; reissued in paperback, New York: Ballantine, 1981; Picador, London: 1982. Impres­sionistic semiautobiography, seen through the eyes of a boy growing up in a 1940s Greece ruled by the occupiers but attuned to the resistance. A successful foray into prose by an emigre to the U.S. who had previously published four volumes of poetry.

——— . The Heroic Age. New York: Penguin, 1985.

Kazantzakis, Nikos. The Last Temptation. New York: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1961.

——— . Freedom or Death (Captain Mihalis). New York: Simon & Schuster/Touch­stone, 1971.

——— . Zorba the Greek. New York: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone, 1971.

——— . Christ Recrucified (The Greek Passion). New York: Simon & Schuster/

Touchstone, 1981. Many editions. The most accessible works of Greece’s most famous novelist—who was probably a better journalist and whose work does not translate well into English.

Myrivilis, Stratis. The Schoolmistress with the Golden Eyes and The Mermaid Madonna. Athens: Evstathiadhis Group, 1981. Two tempestuous novels set in the villages of Lesvos’ north shore, Myrivilis’ homeland. Available in Greece and U.K. only.

Papadhiamantis, Alexandhros. The Murderess. London: Writers and Readers, 1983. Turn-of-the-century novel by a Skiathote often dubbed “the Greek Thomas Hardy.”

Tsirkas, Stratis (loannis). Drifting Cities. New York: Knopf, 1974. O.P.Tsirkas makes Malraux and Durrell look amateurish with this epic tapestry of Communist and rightist intrigue within the Greek army-in-exile, set in wartime Jerusalem, Alexandria and Cairo.

Venezis, llias. Beyond the Aegean (Aeolia). New York: Vanguard Press, 1956? O.P. Dreamlike symbolic novel set in Greek villages of Asia Minor before the 1922 military debacle and subsequent exodus.

 

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