Three Summers

The written equivalent of lying in the sun eating figs. I liked it much more than Elena Ferrante's books, but that's the general ballpark, except jollier. As Polly Samson writes in the preface, it brings to mind I Capture the Castle. Gorgeous -- India Knight * Sunday Times * A dreamy modernist gem of a novel... elegant and striking * Publishers Weekly * A dreamy, cinematic tapestry of Greek village life * NPR * A leisurely, large-hearted coming-of-age novel, earthy and innocent, nostalgic and beautifully rendered * Kirkus * We must be grateful to the Penguin European Writers series, a precious venture in these dark times -- John Banville The sun has disappeared from books these days... You are one of those who pass it on -- Albert Camus to Margarita Liberaki Drifting blossom, girlish secrets and lantern-lit dances pervade the 1946 Greek classic Three Summers, by Margarita Liberaki, featuring three sisters on the brink of adulthood on a pre-civil-war country estate at Kifi ssia, outside Athens. Just reissued, this innocent gem is often compared to Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle * Country & Townhouse * With its sensuous prose, nostalgic charm, playful humour and evocation of burgeoning sexuality, this novel is the literary equivalent of a sun-soaked holiday in Greece * CultureWhisper *

Margarita Liberaki (1919-2001) was a Greek novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. Her acclaimed novel Three Summers is still taught in Greek schools and tops lists as one of the country's favourite books of all time. It is also widely beloved in France, where it was first published on the recommendation of Albert Camus, who wrote to Liberaki: "The sun has disappeared from books these days... You are one of those who pass it on."