Hailed as "my spiritual brother" by Albert Schweitzer, and oft-compared to fellow giants Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Nikos Kazantzakis occupies a unique place among the literary notables of our time. Kazantzakis was born in1883 at the height of his country's last bloody revolts to break free of Ottoman oppression. As a child, he knew the sound and smell of fear and the sight of rampaging soldiers on the streets outside his window. He knew the blood-curdling sound of people being slaughtered, and the sight of his father standing guard at the door, his knife at the ready; knew, too, the sound of his father's voice in his ear, savage and tender, whispering to not be afraid...to die like a Cretan. For a child living in Crete at that time, there were words that dripped blood upon which an entire populace were crucified: the words revolution and freedom. These were the words that shaped and defined the struggle for freedom and spiritual perfection that was to become the focus of his...