Crete (Directions) - Hardcover

Unsworth, Barry

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0792266439 ISBN 13: 9780792266433

Publisher: National Geographic, 2004

Synopsis

The Booker Prize-winning novelist recounts his journeys through Crete, capturing the rich history of the island, the complex influences that have shaped Cretan culture, the island's rugged landscape, and the people of Crete.

About this title

About the Author:

Barry Unsworth won the Booker Prize in 1992 for Sacred Hunger; his next novel, Morality Play was a Booker nominee and a bestseller in both the U.S. and Great Britain. His other books include Pascali's Island, which was made into a feature film, and Losing Nelson, a Publishers Weekly Best Book and New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Unsworth lives in Umbria with his wife and was recently a visiting professor at Kenyon College in Ohio.

From Publishers Weekly:

Booker Prizewinning novelist Unsworth (Sacred Hunger, etc.) travels with his wife to the ancient island of Crete, where, according to the Greeks, "everything began." The island's history is gruesome due to centuries of occupation by Venetian, German and Turkish conquerors, so Crete can "sometimes seem a patchwork of stories, from primal myth to heroic legend, to the embroideries of local gossip." Just as the "Cretans love stories," so does Unsworth, and on visiting the wonders of the island-the "holy cavern of Psychro" (the supposed birthplace of Zeus), the gorges of Samaria and Therisso, the Lasithi Plateau-he infuses his narrative with historical facts, mythic lore and a deep appreciation for nature. His keen understanding of history and legend also illuminates his visits to the island's churches and monasteries, and particularly the ruined palace at Knossos, where the hero Theseus was said to have defeated the "monstrous Minotaur." A reverence for Crete's flora and fauna pervades Unsworth's exacting prose ("the scrub glows with a soft burnish, flame-colored, forming a landscape almost too beautiful to be quite believed in"), and he often couples these descriptions with sadness over Crete's invasive, oppressive tourism industry. The people of Crete, Unsworth notes more than once, are "of great spirit and generous hospitality [but also possess an] implacable vindictiveness," often still upholding "blood feuds" that originated centuries ago. Despite Unsworth's bouts of melancholy and occasional frustrations, the author's thoughtful journey eventually finds peace and comfort in "the vitality and warmth of the people and the unfailing charm of the landscape."
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About this edition

• Publisher: National Geographic
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0792266439
• ISBN 13: 9780792266433
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 176