Nikos Kazantzakis Books

"A tragic play about the Ancient Greek warrior-king Odysseus, and a prequel to Nikos Kazantzakis's epic poem The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel, inspired by Homer's The Odyssey"--

This autobiographical novel is one of the last things written by Kazantzakis before he died in 1957. It paints a vivid picture of his childhood in Crete, and then steadily grows into a spiritual quest that takes him to Italy, Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Berlin and Russia.

Novel which portrays Christ as a sensitive human being who is torn between his own passionates desires and his triumphant destiny on the cross.

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. Zorba the Greek, Nikos Kazantzakis' most popular and enduring novel, has its origins in the author's own experiences in the Peleponnesus in the 1920s. His swashbuckling hero has legions of fans across the world and his adventures are as exhilarating now as they were on first publication in the 1950s.

The Fratricides is about internecine strife in a village in the Epirus during the Greek civil war of the late 1940s. Many of the villagers, including Captain Drakos, son of the local priest Father Yanaros, have taken to the mountains and joined the Communist rebels. It is Holy Week and, with murder, death and destruction everywhere, Father Yanaros feels that he himself is bearing the sins of the world.

The context is Crete in the late nineteenth century, the epic struggle between Greeks and Turks, between Christianity and Islam. A new uprising takes place to rival those of 1854, 1866 and 1878, and the island is thrown into confusion yet again. The life of the local community continues shakily, but is disrupted by explosions of violence.

Blending historical fact and classical myth, the author transports the reader 3,000 years into the past, to a pivotal point in history: the final days before the ancient kingdom of Minoan Crete is to be conquered and supplanted by the emerging city-state of Athens.

A tale of a European traveler to China who falls in love with a Chinese woman and becomes caught up in the dangers of revolutionary activity and brutal war.

The letters of Nikos Kazantzakis offer a vivid glimpse into the life of the renowned author, known for works like Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. This collection, edited and translated by scholar Peter Bien, presents the most extensive selection of Kazantzakis's correspondence available, revealing the complexities and richness of his experiences. Through these letters, readers can explore the personal and creative journey of a writer whose life was as dynamic as his literary contributions.

=The magic of the Greek countryside Der Autor des 'Alexis Sorbas' beschreibt seine Heimat mit der urwüchsigen Kraft eines großen Dichters.