Alexandros zorba biography

1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis

For the film, see Zorba the Greek (film). For the song used in the film, see Zorbas.

Zorba the Greek (Βίος και Πολιτεία του Αλέξη Ζορμπά, Latin: Víos kai Politeía tou Aléxē Zorbá, Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas) is a novel written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1946.

Alexandros zorba biography

It is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his bookish life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba. The novel was adapted into the successful 1964 film of the same name directed by Michael Cacoyannis, as well as a stage musical and a BBC radio play.

Plot

The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning sometime after the end of World War I. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Russian Caucasus and Ukraine to help the Caucasus Greeks a