Book suggestions based in Athens and Greece

[brittanyfairies]

Hi, I'm off on holiday to Athens in a couple of weeks and I really enjoy reading novels set in the places I'm visiting. Can anyone recommend some novels based in Greece or Athens. I've read a couple of Victoria Hislop books and really enjoyed them, so would appreciate any novels along similar lines. I like historical too.

The Magus by John Fowles in set on the Greek island of Spetses, I believe? Or the fictional island in the novel is based on Spetses. I loved it when I read it in my 20s but not sure if it has aged well. I have found Fowles quite hard to read in later life due to his depiction of women (but that's just my view).

People have had luck with this sort of thing on these boards before with the Trip Fiction website.

Mary Renault for ancient historical.

Don't read Zorba the Greek, the misogyny has not aged well. I took it to Crete and ended up reading my children's books (graphic novel of the Odyssey and Percy Jackson!).

The Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell (Athens, dramatic/romantic) or My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell (Corfu, much funnier).

Eurydice Street by Sofia Zinovieff - lovely autobiographical account of moving to Athens and raising a family there.

https://sofkazinovieff.com/books/eurydice-street/

i also enjoyed her novel A house on paradise street

Specifically, The King Must Die.

Love Mary Renault and adore The King Must Die.
Also recommend Madeleine Miller's The Song of Achilles and Circe.

Jostein Gaarder: The Solitaire Mystery. It's an absolutely beautiful book, and Athens features heavily.

Pat barker women if troy series Women of Troy Series by Pat Barker https://share.google/K2fiT94N41157e7rX

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.

I remember enjoying Tom Holt's 'The Walled Orchard' many years ago.

My Brother Michael and This Rough Magic, both by Mary Stewart.

The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

Like @ElizabethVonArnim said - My Family and Other Animals. The sequel, Birds, Beasts and Relatives is equally funny.

Steven Fry’s retelling of Greek myths (Mythos and Heroes).

On a similar mythological note, Clytrymestra (sorry for the abysmal spelling).

A Theatre for Dreamers by Polly Samson, set in 1960s Hydra – it's fiction but based around real-life characters who lived there at the time, including Leonard Cohen and Marianne.

The books by Jennifer Saint: Ariadne, Elektra, Atalanta & Hera are good for retelling a of the Greek myths.

glorious exploits ferdia lennon blew me away