{"product_id":"the-cretan-runner-isbn-9781590179048","title":"The Cretan Runner","description":"George Psychoundakis was a twenty-one-year-old shepherd from the village of Asi Gonia when the battle of Crete began: “It was in May 1941 that, all of a sudden, high in the sky, we heard the drone of many aeroplanes growing steadily closer.” The German parachutists soon outnumbered the British troops who were forced first to retreat, then to evacuate, before Crete fell to the Germans. So began the Cretan Resistance and the young shepherd’s career as a wartime runner. In this unique account of the Resistance, Psychoundakis records the daily life of his fellow Cretans, his treacherous journeys on foot from the eastern White Mountains to the western slopes of Mount Ida to transmit messages and transport goods, and his enduring friendships with British officers (like his eventual translator Patrick Leigh Fermor) whose missions he helped to carry out with unflagging courage, energy, and good humor.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIncludes thirty-two black-and-white photographs and a map.“Psychoundakis was able to master challenges that would stagger an Olympic athlete: he could scramble snowy cliffs with a sixty-pound pack on his back, run fifty-plus miles through the night on a starvation diet of boiled hay, and outfox a Gestapo death squad that had him cornered.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Christopher McDougall\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Psychoundakis’s effortlessly poetic account reflected a passionate love of his homeland and its people, a geologist’s and botanist’s eye, chortling bemusement at the habits of the upper-class British agents, and deep comradeship with his fellow resistance fighters.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Simon Steyne, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There have been other memoirs of wartime Crete but those were visitors’ books. George’s story, as Leigh Fermor points out in the introduction, is unique.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Allison Pearson\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Any fresh volume on the subject would need to be exceptional. \u003ci\u003eThe Cretan Runner\u003c\/i\u003e not only competes but transcends; it is not exceptional, it is unique.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The  book has at once a calm of a race which takes it for granted that life  is full of death, and the excitement of a fighter who wildly enjoys his  own part of the dangerous business. It is full of jokes and full of  pride.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“But now Psychoundakis's style seems  the fresher, a scrappy, honest account of a temporary alliance with,  and allegiance to, an external force in order to rid Crete of its  occupiers. And with all the frustrations, disagreements,  misunderstandings and damaged pride, as well as boozy parties and  heroism, that entailed.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Vera Rules\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eGeorge Psychoundakis \u003c\/b\u003e(1920–2006) was born and raised in the  remote Cretan village of Asi Gonia, where he received a rudimentary  education. When the German army invaded in 1941, he left his work as a  shepherd and joined the Resistance. He would eventually run messages for  the British Special Operations Executive, and was noted for his speed  and intimacy with the landscape. After the war he was mistakenly  imprisoned as a deserter and began writing what would become \u003ci\u003eThe Cretan Runner\u003c\/i\u003e (published in English in 1955 and in Greek in 1986) while in prison. In addition to his memoir, Psychoundakis wrote \u003ci\u003eThe Eagle’s Nest\u003c\/i\u003e,  a study of the customs of Cretan mountain dwellers, and translated  works by Hesiod and Homer into the Cretan language. In 1945  Psychoundakis received the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for  Meritorious Service, and in 1981 he was recognized by the Academy of  Athens for his translations. He lived on Crete, with his wife and three  children, until the end of his life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePatrick Leigh Fermor\u003c\/b\u003e (1915–2011) chronicled his youthful walk across Europe to Constantinople in a trilogy comprising \u003ci\u003eA Time of Gifts\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eBetween the Woods and the Water\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Broken Road\u003c\/i\u003e. After serving on Crete during World War II, Leigh Fermor settled in Greece and his books \u003ci\u003eMani\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eRoumeli \u003c\/i\u003eattest  to his deep love for the country. In 2004 he was knighted for his  services to literature and to British–Greek relations.","brand":"NYRB Classics","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46304773669093,"sku":"NP9781590179048","price":19.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781590179048.jpg?v=1767738871","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-cretan-runner-isbn-9781590179048","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}