My travels through Greece are enriched by stories, and this theme (of pairing books with places) runs throughout the ‘Packing for Greece’ series.
Here are the books mentioned by name in my second book, Repacking for Greece. Those with a Greek setting, including Asia Minor, are marked with an asterisk.
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Books mentioned in Repacking for Greece (in order of appearance)
* Unpacking for Greece, mentioned in a brief preface to give context to the story.
* Eleni, by Nicholas Gage, a harrowing memoir/biography of his mother’s life during the Second World War and the Greek Civil War
* Lonely Planet Greece, my guidebook of choice
* Jeffrey Siger’s Devil of Delphi, one of the fast-paced ‘Chief Inspector Andreas Kaldis Mystery’ series I’ve been enjoying – sometimes on location – for years now
* My Family and Other Animals a childhood memoir, set on Corfu, by the great naturalist Gerald Durrell and featuring his writer brother Lawrence Durrell
* Chasing Odysseus, the first book of Sulari Gentill’s fantastical YA trilogy (apologies: no preview available)
* Homer’s The Iliad and The Odyssey, translated by Samuel Butler, a steal at 99c
* Virgil’s The Aeneid, the Penguin Classics edition translated by Robert Fagles
* William Shakespeare’s play, The Tempest, said by some to be set on the island of Corfu
The Complete Little World of Don Camillo, the first book in the Don Camillo series by Giovanni Guareschi, translated by Adam Elgar, and one of my father’s favourite books
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, from The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, featuring Aslan, whose name means ‘The Lion’ in Turkish
* Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, a hauntingly beautiful book set on Kefalonia
The Jumblies and Other Nonsense Verses, by Edward Lear (including ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, ‘The Jumblies’ and other poems)
The Birdman’s Wife, by Melissa Ashley, in which she introduces us to Edward Lear in his lesser-known role as an ornithological illustrator documenting Australia’s birds in the nineteenth century
* Cartes Postales from Greece, a collection of dark – and excellent – short stories by Victoria Hislop
Anil’s Ghost, by Michael Ondaatje, set in Sri Lanka, including a scene in the same hospital I was taken to immediately after my road accident.
Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe’s Elizabethan tragedy, which mentions Helen of Troy
* Complete Works of Pausanias, second-century Greek geographer who described the citadel at Tiryns
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s classic novella, originally published as Le Petit Prince
* The Colossus of Maroussi, travel narrative by controversial twentieth-century American author Henry Miller
* Sextet, a collection of six essays by Henry Miller, including beautiful prose describing Hydra (apologies: no preview available)
* Honestly, We Meant Well, a novel by Grant Ginder, set on the island of Aegina
Click here for the list of books mentioned in Unpacking for Greece
COMING SOON: More recommendations for Greece-themed books
Sally Jane Smith 