Summer readings: Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
Far from being unputdownable, this novel demands you cast it aside and emulate its great Greek hero in living life to the full
Penny Woods
Sunday 14 August 2011 09.00 BST
I'd heard of Zorba the Greek, in the way that the classics of modern literature totter into the subconscious even without being read or studied. It was only while holidaying in Greece in summer 2010 that I bought a tatty, overpriced Faber edition from a small bookshop in Athens as I waited for the boat to Heraklion, the main port of Crete where Nikos Kazantzakis, the book's author, was born and is buried.