It was just over a month ago when the whole of Greece paused to pay their respects to the great Cretan composer Mikis Theodorakis. His body lay in state at the Athens Metropolitan Cathedral and for three days as the crowds lined up to pay their last respects before the body was taken for burial to Galatas, Chania.

The honour and respect paid to the composer was in stark contrast to the treatment given to another Cretan great, the writer and thinker Nikos Kazantzakis who died in Freiberg in West Germany on 26 October, 1957.

When Kazantzakis’ widow, Helen, brought the body back to Athens to honour the writer’s wish to be buried in his home town of Heraklion, it was clear that he would not be honoured by state or church.

READ MORE: Greek author’s first novel focuses on the widow’s struggle to bury Nikos Kazantzakis in Heraklion

The story of the journey of the great author’s body from Germany to his final resting place is the material for Greek journalist Yorgos Pratanos’ first impressive venture into fiction: “The Unwanted Dead – The Shocking End of Zorba’s Heretical Author”.

Pratanos spent a long time researching the book which closely follows the actual events over the 10 days from the death of Kazantzakis to his burial within the walls the Martinego Bastion of Heraklion’s Venetian fortress.

The main protagonists who drive the story are Kazantzakis widow, Helen, and the young Freddy Germanos, a popular Greek journalist whose article on the the funeral for “Eleftheria” gave Pratanos the idea for the book’s unique structure.

The story is driven, on the one hand, by Helen’s story of coming to terms with the loss of her husband and reflecting on their life together and Germanos operating on the streets of Athens gathering the news and gossip around the great author. Each day is witnessed from the perspective of the grieving widow and the young journalist as he trawls the cafes and streets of Athens to gauge the public’s sentiment. It is a contrast that works very well for the book.

Germanos’ presence lends a light, energetic touch to what could have easily have become a sad and angry work. Through his eyes we see Athens as a vibrant city that is shaking off the shackles of the Occupation and civil war and is in the process of joining the modern world.

American movie siren Jane Mansfield has a cameo role as the young journalist has to report on her visit to Athens while he champs at the bit to cover Kazantzakis final journey to Crete.

Through the widow’s eyes we see Kazantzakis as loving husband, loyal friend, man of principle, as well as the great writer and thinker that he was.

The reader also comes to understand something of roots of the malicious campaign that sought to undermine her husband’s great achievements in life. Germanos reveals the extent of the campaign against Kazantzakis after his death.

READ MORE: Greece mourns the passing of legendary composer Mikis Theodorakis, aged 96

When the body arrives in Athens, no church can be found to lay the body in state, instead a funerary room is made available for the body at the city’s First Cemetery. It is only when the body arrives in Heraklion that the true depth of Kazantzakis connection to his native island is revealed.

The only fictional character in the book is the “Cretan” who keeps the young journalist updated with the mood of the island as it prepares to receive its famous son.

It is astounding that one the most important writers of the 20th Century was nominated nine times for the Nobel Prize in Literature only for Greek government and church authorities to pressure the committee to hand the honour to someone else.

The reception of Kazantzakis in his own country even as he was heralded by the rest of the world remains inexplicable but Pratanos goes a long way to providing a clear picture of the great writer and his contributions in a book that is profound yet entertaining, revealing, but also original.

♦ “The Unwanted Dead – the Shocking End of Zorba’s Heretical Author” by Yorgos Pratanos is published in Greece by Dioptra Publications, Black Rose Writing is the US publisher.