This fictionalised account of his life was one of the last things Kazantzakis wrote before his death. A vivid picture of his childhood in Crete, still occupied by the Ottoman Turks, develops into an intellectual and spiritual quest that takes him to Italy, Jerusalem, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Russia and the Caucasus, before closing the circle with a return to Crete. Intensely personal, it is also philosophically astute. The writing is superb and his insights are a delight.
