Böcker av Nikos Kazantzakis

First published in 1946, "Zorba the Greek," is, on one hand, the story of a Greek working man named Zorba, a passionate lover of life, the unnamed narrator who he accompanies to Crete to work in a lignite mine, and the men and women of the town where they settle. On the other hand it is the story of God and man, The Devil and the Saints; the struggle of men to find their souls and purpose in life and it is about love, courage and faith.

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.

Blending historical fact and classical myth, the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

The life of Nikos Kazantzakis - the author of "Zorba the Greek" and "The Last Temptation of Christ" - was as colorful and eventful as his fiction. And nowhere is his life revealed more fully or surprisingly than in his letters. This title offers a comprehensive selection of Kazantzakis' letters that touches on various aspects of Kazantzakis' life.

Opens with Alexander's first exploit, the taming of the horse, Bucephalas, and is seen in great part through the eyes of his young neighbor who eventually becomes an officer in his army and follows him on his campaign to conquer the world.

His Christ is an epic conception, wholly original. 'When Kazantzakis describes the raising of Lazarus, the early life of Mary Magdalene, the domestic lives of Martha and Mary, it is as if an old box of lantern slides had suddenly become a moving picture.