My Greek Books
My Greek Books is back! Hope you’re having a great summer and getting in lots of reading time. I’m excited to tell you about three books I’ve recently read—a memoir, a novel, and the untold story of a forgotten history. Let’s go!
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Stealing Dad by Sofka Zinovieff
Corsair (May 8, 2025)
About the author
Sofka Zinovieff grew up in Putney, London. After attending schools in London and Oxford, she studied social anthropology at Cambridge and carried out research for her PhD in Greece. This marked the beginning of her lifelong involvement with Greece. Later, she lived in Moscow and Rome, where she worked as a freelance journalist and reviewer.
Sofka is the author of six books, including Eurydice Street: A Place in Athens (Granta Books, 2005), Red Princess: The Revolutionary Life, Love Affairs, and Adventures of Princess Sophy (Pegasus Books, 2009), The House on Paradise Street (Atria Books/Marble Arch Press, 2013), The Mad Boy, Lord Berners, My Grandmother and Me: An Aristocratic Family, a High-Society Scandal and an Extraordinary Legacy (Harper, 2015), and Putney: A Novel (Harper Perennial, 2019).
In 2021, she created a fascinating eight-part documentary podcast series about Athens, called Athens Unpacked. Do check it out! Sofka is also the chair for the judges for the Runciman Award, a literary prize awarded by the Anglo-Hellenic League for the best book about or related to Greece published in the last year. She and her family live in Athens.
About the book
When eccentric and controversial artist Alekos passes away, his current and eighth wife, Heather, tells his children that they cannot see him and there will be no funeral. She says those are his wishes and she will fulfill them. Possessive and lost in her grief, Heather won’t allow them or anyone else a final goodbye. Her resistance brings together Alekos’ seven children who live in the US, France, England, and Greece—they were born to five of his wives. Some haven’t met, and none have met the youngest.
The children gather and try to reason with Heather, but she insists that they stay away. They plead for a proper funeral, but she won’t relent. But they are also determined to pay their respects and get closure too. So, they take matters into their own hands. Will they succeed? You’ll have to read it to find out.
My Greek Books review
I’d been waiting for months for this book but could not find it in the US, so I had to order it from the UK. It took a while to arrive but it was worth the wait. Sofka Zinovieff weaved a gripping tale that I just couldn’t put down. I had to know the plan and if they would succeed. Stealing Dad is a mad cap adventure that drew me in from the start. Don’t miss it!
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The Black Angels: The Untold Story of the Nurses Who Helped Cure Tuberculosis by Maria Smilios
GP Putnam’s Sons (September 19, 2023)
About the author
Award-winning Author Maria Smilios is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Born and raised in New York City, she holds a Master of Arts in American literature and religion from Boston University where she was a Luce and Presidential scholar. Maria’s work has appeared in The Guardian, Narratively, The Forward, Lit Hub, Writers Digest, The Emancipator, Newsweek, and other publications.
The book received the 2024 Christopher Award in literature, which celebrates works that “affirm the highest values of the human spirit.” It was also a finalist for the prestigious Gotham Book Prize, an NASW Science in Society Journalism finalist, an NPR Science Friday Summer Read for 2024, shortlisted for the English PEN literary award, and more.
New York City and State recently honored her for “outstanding service” and “positive contribution” to the people of New York. The book greatly informed and inspired the Staten Island Museum’s exhibit “Taking Care: The Black Angels of Sea View,” which is on display through 2025.
About the book
New York City, 1929. Tuberculosis is on the rise and there’s a dire nursing shortage. In the days before antibiotics, tuberculosis killed one in seven people. Fear spread faster than the disease and large groups of white nurses at Sea View, New York’s largest municipal hospital, quit. Desperate to avert a public health crisis, officials recruited Black southern nurses, offering promises of good pay, a career, and an escape from the restraints of Jim Crow. But they didn’t get what they were promised. They found themselves working on an isolated hilltop in Staten Island, and they still confronted the racism they’d hoped to escape. The nurses toiled in a dreadfully understaffed sanatorium, referred to as “the pest house,” where it was said that “no one left alive.”
This true story spans decades, from the Great Depression on, following young nurses who were known by their patients as “Black Angels”. For years, they risked their lives in the worst conditions. These angels of mercy cared for New York’s poorest residents, many of which just waited to die, while others became guinea pigs for experimental surgeries and treatments.
These nurses not only soothed their patients, but they played a major role in desegregating the New York City hospital system. And their vital role in helping to find the cure for tuberculosis at Sea View had previously been completely erased from history. The Black Angels brings their story to light.
My Greek Books review
This book has been on my to-be-read list since it came out. Wow! The Black Angels gives voice to these angels of mercy who risked their lives every day to care for their patients. This story reads like a novel, but it’s all true. As we recently endured a pandemic, readers will see many parallels. I loved learning how these women stood up to change the status quo and didn’t back down. Thank you, Maria Smilios, for telling this unknown story, and giving voice—and names—to these amazing women.
The Parthenon Paradox: Rivers of Redemption (The Parthenon Series Book 3) by Peter Barber
Independently published (March 8, 2025)
About the author
Peter Barber is a Brit who fell in love with a Greek woman—and Greece. His humorous stories depict the challenges of a foreigner living (and building) in Greece, along and his Greek wife, Alexandra, who is a force of nature.
The first book in The Parthenon series is A Parthenon on Our Roof: Adventures of an Anglo-Greek Marriage (Ant Press, 2nd edition, 2022). Read my review here. The second is called A Parthenon in Pefki (independently published, 2023). Read my review here. He’s also the author of Musings from a Greek Village, Volumes 1 & 2.
Peter is a member of the UK’s Society of Authors. He and his wife split their time between London and Greece.
About the book
When Peter and his fiery Greek wife, Alex, grew tired of the rainy skies of London and the overcrowding in Glyfada, they sought an escape. They wished to trade the hustle and bustle for a quiet, slower paced village life. After purchasing a property on the island of Evia and building their dream home, they thought they’d relax and enjoy the tranquility. But nature, bureaucracy—and an eccentric neighbor—turned that dream into a nightmare.
Storms destroy their garden and flood their house. Villagers rally to help restore the property. But as they take measures to avoid future catastrophes, they’re met with a formidable foe—the person who actually caused the flooding will stop at nothing to make Peter and Alex take the blame for it.
Enter police, lawyers, and unending bureaucracy. Not only do Peter and Alex have to defend their property from further damage, but also themselves. But as the stakes get higher—and they keep getting arrested based on frivolous complaints, will they seek revenge or find a way to make it all work?
My Greek Books review
If you haven’t read the other books in the series, you’ll be fine, as this one really is a standalone. While the others are laugh-out-loud books (do go back and read them), this one if heartwarming and introspective. The Parthenon Paradox takes us through Peter and Alex’s love story and his introduction and assimilation to Greek life. We learn the whole sordid saga of the property issues. But more than that, this is a story of how two people dedicated to each other and to their dream, lean on their love and commitment to each other to get through the worst of times. It’s a story of resilience, love, and finding peace. It’s Peter Barber’s best work to date. Pick up a copy.
My Greek Books—August 2025
That’s it for this month. Add these books to your to-be-read list! I’ve got more great books to share with your next month. Check back for more My Greek Books. Til then, Happy Reading!
