The best novels set in Greece, Italy, Spain & France – for a virtual trip abroad during Lockdown FROM THE NATURAL BEAUTY OF THE CARMARGUE TO THE CAVE AND MYTHS OF CRETE, WRITERS HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY THE MEDITERRANEAN FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. TAKE A LITERARY HOLIDAY WITH ONE OF THESE GREAT READS… GREECE MIGHT BE ONE OF THE COUNTRIES MOST FREQUENTLY WRITTEN-ABOUT SO THERE ARE PLENTY OF BOOKS TO CHOOSE FROM! BOTH FICTION AND NON-FICTION. IT CERTAINLY IS MY FAVOURITE HOLIDAY DESTINATION AND I ALWAYS ENJOY TAKING A BOOK AWAY THAT IS SET IN THE COUNTRY I AM VISITING. HOPEFULLY SOME OF THESE CHOICES MIGHT TRANSPORT YOU VIRTUALLY TO GREECE IN THESE TROUBLED TIMES... Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan • Percy Jackson is an energetic teenager with dyslexia and ADHD. He hates doing his homework and can't seem to concentrate in class, just like any normal teenager. But strange things always seem to happen to him. On a school trip where his maths teacher turns into an evil bat-like creature everything starts to change. He discovers that he can understand ancient Greek and that his best friend Grover is in fact a satyr…Finally he is chased to Long Island by an ancient monster and discovers that he is a demigod, half- human, and half-god. • Percy is launched into a world of monsters, sword fights and danger. He embarks on several missions, culminating in the ultimate face-off with an army of terrifying creatures, led by the most evil and cunning villain of all. • exciting and full of adventure With lovable heroes, detestable villains, action, adventure, mystery, magic, vengeance and romance what more could you ask for? Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis The classic novel Zorba the Greek is the story of two men, their incredible friendship, and the importance of living life to the fullest. Zorba, a Greek working man, is a larger-than-life character, energetic and unpredictable. He accompanies the unnamed narrator to Crete to work in the narrator’s lignite mine, and the pair develops a singular relationship. The two men couldn’t be further apart: The narrator is cerebral, modest, and reserved; Zorba is unfettered, spirited, and beyond the reins of civility. Over the course of their journey, he becomes the narrator’s greatest friend and inspiration and helps him to appreciate the joy of living. The Odyssey by Homer the magnificent, mercurial character of Odysseus. And the descriptions of Greece! “Rosy-fingered dawn” is undeniable. Unless you read Greek, you need to choose a good translation. There’s a new one by Emily Watson that I would recommend, or you can’t go wrong with the Robert Fagles one.. If you have been lucky enough to study it in the original Greek you will enjoy the translation even more! This work could be said to be a foundation for all reading. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres This novel more than any other for me conjures up the landscapes and scents of Greece. its evocation of a lost Kefalonia, the still-beautiful island it’s set on, is perfect. Above all, Pelagia is a character that many who know Greece will recognise – feisty and passionate. My Family & Other Animals by Gerald Durrell This book is more of an autobiography, but it reads like a comic novel and much of it contains an element of fiction – for instance, Larry, (Gerald’s brother, the author Lawrence Durrell) didn’t in fact live in the same house as the others. He also called the book “very wicked [but] very funny”. As a description of an eccentric, dysfunctional family the book is a blast, making you half grateful and half sorry that your family is not similar; it can not be beaten for its descriptions of Corfu, and specifically the landscape and nature. you can almost hear the cicadas and see the lizards scuttling over sun- drenched rocks. Mythos by Stephen Fry • No one loves and quarrels, desires and deceives as boldly or brilliantly as Greek gods and goddesses. • Pick up this book and step into another world – of magic, mayhem, monsters and maniacal Gods. Discover Stephen Fry's magnificent retelling of the greatest myths and legends ever told . FRANCE I HAVE BEEN VISITING FRANCE SINCE MY DAYS AS A CHILD ON EXTENDED FAMILY HOLIDAYS AND EVEN AS A TEENAGE AU PAIR DURING MY GAP YEAR. IT IS RENOWNED FOR ITS FOOD AND WINE, BUT ALSO FOR ITS COMBATIVE ATTITUDE TO POLITICS, ITS LOVE OF GOOD LIVING, ELEGANT CITIES AND VARIETY OF LAND- AND SEASCAPES. WE CAN STILL VISIT IT THROUGH THE PAGES OF LITERATURE. All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr This Pulitzer-prize-winning novel seems tailor-made for these days. The title refers to a teacher’s comment in the book about how our brains, locked in our skulls without a spark of light, build for us a luminous world. And today we, in lockdown, can rebuild in our imaginations 1940s Paris and the “open-air fortress” of Saint-Malo. We do this partly through the mind of young Marie-Laure, blind since she was six, who finds her way using scale models her brilliant father builds for her. Characters in the occupied Brittany town come to life, and readers’ hearts go out to Marie-Laure and young German counterpart Werner as they confront a world of hate and horror with grace and integrity. Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan This 1954 classic by a precocious 18-year-old takes us to the sun-drenched Riviera, where lazy and selfish 17-year-old Cécile is holidaying with her widowed father and his latest girlfriend. The bright light of summer goes hand in hand with shady morals, as Cécile plots with her older boyfriend to see off the new woman in her father’s life, one who would seek to curb her self-indulgence and even make her do a spot of schoolwork. It all goes horribly wrong, yet in the end we are left in some doubt as to whether the flighty Cécile has learned anything from her first experience of tristesse. Suite Française by Irene Némirovsky A French writer of Ukrainian-Jewish origin, Irene planned a sequence of five novels set in Nazi-occupied France. The first two, in tiny handwriting in a leather-bound notebook, survived her arrest and murder in Auschwitz. Preserved – but unread – by her daughter, they languished for six decades before being published in one volume in 2004. Suite Française offers an amazing backstory and an unflinching look at France and the French. The first part deals with a cast of Parisians fleeing Paris as the Germans invade. However, the second part might evoke memories of stone-built small towns where we might enjoy dinner and a summer stroll, but which we know would be a claustrophobic nightmare to live in – as the fictional town of Bussy is for Lucille, sharing a house with her resentful mother-in- law. The square where village girls are chatted up by soldiers could be the Place de la Mairie in a hundred villages across France Perfume by Patrick Süskind This olfactory sensation of a novel takes us to a Paris very different from today’s City. In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift – an absolute sense of smell. As a boy, he lives to decipher the odours of Paris, and apprentices himself to a prominent perfumer who teaches him the ancient art of mixing precious oils and herbs. But Grenouille’s genius is such that he is not satisfied to stop there, and he becomes obsessed with capturing the smells of objects such as brass doorknobs and fresh-cut wood. Subtitled ‘The Story of a Murderer’ prepare to be surprised and disgusted in equal measure! A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle In this witty and warm-hearted account, Peter Mayle tells what it is like to realize a long-cherished dream and actually move into a 200-year-old stone farmhouse in the remote country of the Lubéron with his wife and two large dogs. He endures January’s frosty mistral as it comes howling down the Rhône Valley, discovers the secrets of goat racing through the middle of town, and delights in the glorious regional cuisine. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George MONSIEUR PERDU CALLS HIMSELF A LITERARY APOTHECARY. FROM HIS FLOATING BOOKSTORE IN A BARGE ON THE SEINE, HE PRESCRIBES NOVELS FOR THE HARDSHIPS OF LIFE. USING HIS INTUITIVE FEEL FOR THE EXACT BOOK A READER NEEDS, PERDU MENDS BROKEN HEARTS AND SOULS. THE ONLY PERSON HE CAN'T SEEM TO HEAL THROUGH LITERATURE IS HIMSELF; HE'S STILL HAUNTED BY HEARTBREAK AFTER HIS GREAT LOVE DISAPPEARED. SHE LEFT HIM WITH ONLY A LETTER, WHICH HE HAS NEVER OPENED. AFTER PERDU IS FINALLY TEMPTED TO READ THE LETTER, HE HAULS ANCHOR AND DEPARTS ON A MISSION TO THE SOUTH OF FRANCE, HOPING TO MAKE PEACE WITH HIS LOSS AND DISCOVER THE END OF THE STORY. .