Zorbas Taverna - by Peter Barber (Paperback)

About the Book

A warm, funny story of village life in Greece, where running a taverna means stubborn locals, unruly goats, accidental mayors, and chaos served daily. A celebration of community, humour, and finding home where you least expect it.

Book Synopsis

Welcome back to Telios, the Greek village where bureaucracy meets baklava, where the sea changes moods more often than the mayor, and where the goats-God help us-show more leadership potential than half the council.

Life here should be simple: sun, sea, sardines, repeat. But simplicity and Greece haven't spoken since 1974, so naturally a new wave of regulations arrives just in time to ruin everyone's appetite. Overnight, Zorba's beloved seaside taverna finds itself under threat-again-thanks to rules so confusing they appear to have been written by a man who's never seen a kitchen and may, in fact, be allergic to joy.

Peter, reluctantly heroic, and Alex, heroically reluctant, rally the villagers in defence of their tables, their traditions, and their constitutional right to argue loudly over dinner. What starts as a gentle disagreement soon unfolds into full-blown municipal chaos, complete with spoon-wielding grandmothers ready for battle, a goat with unofficial diplomatic immunity, and a mayoral election in which every candidate is actively campaigning not to be chosen.

The gossiping hurricane known as Maria documents everything-selectively, creatively, and occasionally with 30% accuracy. Spiros, philosopher of the kafenio and part-time fisherman, contributes wisdom from his favourite bench (recently declared "structurally questionable" by the council). Father Evangelos dispenses blessings, warnings, and unsolicited advice with equal enthusiasm, while Theodora guards her kitchen with the ferocity of a Byzantine general. If anyone dares mention "health inspectors", she sharpens her ladle.

Together they form the beating, laughing, quarrelling heart of Telios. The taverna becomes Greece in miniature: passionate, chaotic, generous, and gloriously alive. Plates clatter, cats demand rent, visitors wander in by accident and stay by choice, and somewhere in the background, Dimitri claims to have seen something monstrous in the sea-again.

Part memoir, part comic fiction, Zorba's Taverna: The Trouble with Goats & Mayors is Peter Barber at his funniest and most affectionate. A warm, witty celebration of island life, friendship, food, and the beautiful absurdity of trying to organise anything-anything at all-in Greece.

If it didn't happen exactly this way... it absolutely should have.

Review Quotes

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 January 2026

I am not quite sure how a once typical buttoned up successful English business man could be transformed to an almost succeeding Greek villager but this book shows how. It must surely be that the encompassing hands of the Greek Gods took over and introduced Peter to all the right villagers; first and foremost his wife Alex.

Then there is the taciturn Zorba, owner of a taverna, not just any taverna but the taverna which Zorba built "so people could sit, eat, and listen to the sea," he said eventually. "Now they say the sea is dangerous." Then he turned his chair away from the view. And for a while, that was worse than any argument." It was Zorba's way of dealing with the ridiculous ruling that taverna tables have to be away from the sea.

"Greek life wraps around you like a familiar wool blanket." Here Peter is talking about being absorbed into Greek culture and this could be applied to the whole reading of Book 2.

This book for all who love Greece but in particular for those, who through no fault of their own have lost their physical access to Greece, either temporarily or perhaps tragically, permanently. This second book is a continuation of Book 1 in the Zorba series and is even better if that were possible than the first book .....

Peter dares to state: - Because this is not democracy. Not even close. This is yiayia-cracy - a form of government that predates the Parthenon, ignores the Constitution, and has absolutely no tolerance for delay, hesitation, or personal autonomy. Forget ballots and forums. -

This novel is packed full of gems like this.

and this: ....Spiros rose. It was biblical. A resurrection. A seismic shift in the balance of the known world. He lit a cigarette. Looked at the circle like a general surveying a battlefield. Then stepped in. And good God. The man moved like liquid marble. Grace in denim. Every step was memory. Every turn was proof that no matter how old you are, you never forget the steps that make you feel alive. He danced like the war had ended. Like the taverna had been saved. Like he'd remembered what it meant to be twenty and full of fire.

I've just a question for the author -: what does dressed like a diplomat on a sabbatical and sipping retsina from a teacup look like?