Books about Greek history come in many forms — from ancient myths retold for modern readers to war novels and family chronicles spanning generations. What should you read to understand Greek history? It is a simple question with no simple answer. Greece has been shaped not only by ancient myths and classical civilization but also by centuries of foreign rule, struggles for independence, war, occupation, political division, and migration.

The books below are a highly personal selection rather than a definitive list. Some were written by Greek authors, while others by international authors. Some are classics, while others are surprisingly little known outside Greece.

From ancient myth to classical Athens

A literary journey through Greece almost inevitably begins with mythology. Stephen Fry’s popular books Mythos, Heroes, Troy and Odyssey offer a good introduction, though they are modern retellings rather than novels in the strict sense.

Readers who prefer fiction have a wide range of choices. Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles takes us from Phthia in central Greece to the war at Troy, in present-day Turkey. It’s one of my favorite books in recent years, a good blend of literary quality and reading pleasure.

Several female writers have explored Greek mythology from a contemporary perspective. Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad lets Penelope and the twelve maids, who were killed after Odysseus’s return to Ithaca, tell their stories, rather than focusing solely on Odysseus’s travels. Christa Wolf’s Medea transports us to mythical Corinth, portraying Medea as a victim rather than a murderer, and Colm Tóibín’s House of Names retells the story of Agamemnon’s dysfunctional family in ancient Mycenae.

For classical Greece in the fifth century BC, I recommend The Last of the Wine by Mary Renault. The novel follows a young Athenian through the final years of the Peloponnesian War and the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. It remains one of the finest English-language novels about classical Athens.

Surprisingly, the best-known novels about ancient Greece seem to have been written by international authors rather than by Greek ones.

Greek Independence and the Ottomans

The Greek War of Independence began in 1821, but rather few novels about it are widely read in English today. One notable novel is Loukis Laras by Demetrios Vikelas. It was first published in 1879 and follows a merchant from Chios who is forced to flee after the island’s destruction.

Crete continued to resist Ottoman rule long after an independent Greek state was established. Nikos Kazantzakis, one of the twentieth century’s greatest Greek writers, is best known for his classic Zorba the Greek. However, his historical novel Freedom or Death, also published as Captain Michalis, deserves attention. Set in Crete in 1889, it depicts a society torn between rebellion, personal honor, and the hostility between Christian and Muslim communities.

Rhea Galanaki approaches Cretan history from a different angle in The Life of Ismail Ferik Pasha. A Cretan Christian boy is captured, taken to Egypt, and raised as a Muslim. Many years later, he returns at the head of an Egyptian army sent to suppress the 1866 Cretan revolt. Meanwhile, his brother has become a supporter of the Greek cause. Both men were real historical figures. I find the story extraordinary.

The aftermath of that catastrophe is central to Elias Venezis’s novel. Its refugees have fled Asia Minor and are trying to build new lives in Anavyssos, now a coastal resort on the Athens Riviera. They do not receive a warm welcome from all the local residents. Venezis wrote from personal experience as a refugee, and the novel remains relevant in light of the current refugee crisis in Greece.

Occupation and Greek civil war

The Second World War and the Greek Civil War left deep marks on Greek society and its literature. The best-known international novel about occupied Greece during World War II is Louis de Bernières’s Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, set on Kefalonia during the Italian and German occupations. It combines a love story with the brutal consequences of war.

For Athens, I would begin with two very different novels. The Third Wedding, by Greek author Costas Taktsis, recounts the lives and marriages of two women from the interwar years through the Italian and German occupations. Through their family troubles, much of twentieth-century Greek society comes into view.

Glenway Wescott’s Apartment in Athens tells the story of a Greek couple forced to host a German officer in their home, where everyday conversations grow charged with fear. Wescott was an American writer who seems largely forgotten, yet I believe this novel is well worth reading.

Pavlos Matesis approaches the same period through the voice of an actress in The Daughter. The hardships of occupation and the aftermath of the Greek Civil War are filtered through her memories, prejudices, and determination to reinvent herself.

The family chronicle Niki by Christos Chomenidis spans an even broader period. Niki is the daughter of Greek communists and grows up amid occupation and civil war. Chomenidis drew partly on his own family history, lending the novel an intimacy that a conventional political history could never provide.

For a non-fiction book, Kevin Andrews’s The Flight of Ikaros chronicles his travels through the Peloponnese during the years of the Civil War. Andrews writes about poverty, fear, and political repression, as well as the people who welcomed him into their villages and homes.

The 1960s and Beyond: from political violence to military dictatorship

Vassilis Vassilikos’s political novel Z takes us to the unstable Greek democracy of the early 1960s. It is based on the assassination of left-wing parliamentarian Grigoris Lambrakis and follows the efforts to uncover the involvement of right-wing extremists and elements within the state.

The Greek military dictatorship, the so-called Regime of the Colonels, that followed in 1967 is seen from a personal perspective in Maro Douka’s Fool’s Gold. Its young protagonist becomes politically active while studying in Athens, and her story leads to the Polytechnic student uprising of 1973.

Greece in more recent fiction

Modern Greek history cannot be separated from the social changes that followed the restoration of democracy in 1974 and from Greece’s integration into the European Union. Ersi Sotiropoulos’s Zigzag Through the Bitter-Orange Trees, published in 1999, is, for me, one of the most original novels about young people in modern Greece. Sotiropoulos is among Greece’s most internationally recognized living writers and regularly appears on bookmakers’ lists of Nobel Prize in Literature candidates.

A very different view of Athens appears in Makis Tsitas’s God Is My Witness. Set shortly before the 2004 Olympic Games, the novel is narrated by an unemployed, middle-aged man who blames nearly everyone else for his failures. His monologue is both humorous and unsettling, revealing a society eager to project a successful, modern image.

Finally, Rachel Cusk’s Outline presents contemporary Athens through the eyes of a visiting British writer who teaches a summer course. The people she meets share their marriages, ambitions, and disappointments with her.

Bart Van Besien is the founder of Bookmarked Places, a book blog featuring novels organized by their geographical settings.