Nikos Kazantzakis can, without exaggeration, be called the greatest Greek novelist of the 20th century. A multiple nominee for the Nobel Prize in Literature, he never won the prestigious award, placing him alongside authors such as Leo Tolstoy, Jorge Luis Borges, Vladimir Nabokov, Marcel Proust, and James Joyce—writers whose awards were so undeniably obvious that their absence from the list of laureates is a dark stain on the Nobel Committee's reputation. Remarkably, upon receiving the prize in 1957, Albert Camus lamented that he had been chosen rather than his Greek colleague...

The novel "Captain Michalis" (1953) is the author's oeuvre at its peak. The work centers on the events of the Cretan uprising of 1889, the long and agonizing struggle of the island's population against Turkish oppression. However, this only scratches the surface. The quintessence of War itself unfolds on Crete: Man's final and decisive battle for Freedom. Published in Russian for the first time.