Whitewashed walls, turquoise seas, and stories you’ll never want to leave: Greek vacations in hardback covers.
Most of us can’t just hop on a plane to Santorini whenever we feel like it (if you can, I salute you). But we can travel there in the most deliciously affordable way possible: with a book.
The Greek islands are one of those places that seem too perfect to be real, with whitewashed houses stacked like sugar cubes, sapphire seas that look Photoshopped, and enough history to make your high school textbooks jealous. Whether you’re after a sun-soaked romance, a mystery with a salty breeze, or a deep dive into myth and legend, there’s a book for that.
The Summer House in Santorini by Samantha Parks
Are you after pure escapism with zero guilt and plenty of sunshine?
Of course you are.
Samantha Parks delivers all that and more in this book: she gives you a fish-out-of-water heroine, a dash of romance, and the kind of descriptions of Greek food that will have you Googling “cheap flights to Santorini” before you’ve even finished chapter two.
The story follows Anna, who inherits a summer house on the island and decides to escape her stressful London life for a bit.
Spoiler: she gets more than just a change of scenery. There’s a whole lot of self-discovery, charming locals, and mouthwatering baklava involved. (Really, what more could you want?)
My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell
While this is set on Corfu (which is in the Ionian rather than the Aegean), it is still a Greek island, and this memoir is such a gem we simply couldn’t leave it out.
Gerald Durrell writes about his nothing short of eccentric British family’s adventures after they relocate to Corfu in the 1930s, and his descriptions of the island’s wildlife, landscape, and people are pure joy.
They’re exactly the kind of thing you’d read in a travel blog or a brochure, and will make you feel like Corfu is your second home… even if you’ve never been.
The whole book is light, funny, and full of affection. It’s like reading a sunbeam. It’s the perfect book for anyone looking to laugh out loud while also dipping their toe into another culture.
Zorba the Greek by Nikos Kazantzakis
This story is set on Crete (Greece’s largest island), and it’s basically a national treasure. It’s a well-loved book, and for good reason.
Zorba isn’t just a character, he’s a full-blown force of nature. Through the narrator’s friendship with him, we get to read about philosophy, passion, tragedy, and joy, all steeped in the rugged beauty of the Greek coast.
Kazantzakis writes with such beauty and creativity that you can practically feel the sand under your feet with each turn of the page. It’s truly like being over on the Isles, but without having to pack any luggage.
Little Infamies by Panos Karnezis
This is a collection of interconnected short stories set in a nameless Greek village. Okay, it’s not exactly an island, but Panos Karnezis’ storytelling style and rhythms feel very much like life on one.
The writing blends the ordinary and the surreal with a wink, bringing out the humor, gossip, and small dramas of Greek communities. It’s exactly the kind of book you want to pick up if you want to feel like an expat, not just a tourist.
Landscape with Dog and Other Stories by Ersi Sotiropoulos
While Sotiropoulos moves between settings, she often captures the Mediterranean mood perfectly. Her prose is sensual and slightly surreal, like looking at an island through heat shimmer.
The Island by Victoria Hislop
This one will absolutely transport you to Greece. It may, however, also make you cry in public, so be warned! You’ll need a cocktail and a box of tissues for this story.
The Island is set on Crete and the tiny island of Spinalonga, which was Greece’s former leper colony. It might sound heavy (and it is at times), but it’s also a sweeping, beautiful family saga full of love, loss, and resilience.
Hislop’s careful, stunning writing paints Crete so vividly that you can practically smell the thyme in the air and hear the cicadas buzzing.
Dinner with Persephone by Patricia Storace
This is more memoir-meets-travelogue than fiction, but it still deserves a spot because it truly captures the feeling of being in Greece. Storace spends a year in Athens and on various islands, and her writing is full to the brim with both an outsider’s curiosity and an insider’s tenderness.
From her observations on Greek traditions and history to daily life, the writing is fascinating, and Storace doesn’t shy away from complexities. It’s like having a long, meandering conversation over wine with a well-traveled friend.
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint
It wouldn’t be an exploration of Greece without mythology, so let’s take a dip. Ariadne takes one of the lesser-told Greek myths: the story of the woman who helps Theseus defeat the Minotaur.
But she doesn’t just retell it; Jennifer Saint gives it a fresh, feminist retelling. Her writing is lush and lyrical, and while it’s set in the mythological past, the Greek island atmosphere is still there in full force: salt in the air, heat on the skin, the endless blue of the Aegean.
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Millie Ramm
Millie has been writing since she was a child, and has spent more time with her nose in books than anywhere else. She has been ghostwriting novels and editing for the past few years, and when not working she is curled up with her cats, looking for her next read.
