The Dog on the Acropolis by Mark Tedesco

Tedesco, Mark. 2019. The Dog on the Acropolis. Academia Publications. 

Amazon link: https://amzn.to/2OP5EpR

Indie author Mark Tedesco has taken a interesting true-to-life situation - the stray dogs in Athens, Greece - and turned it into a dual-timeline fictional novel set in ancient and present-day Greece that explores the lives of two families and communities and the dogs that bind them together.

I didn't know about these stray dogs until I saw an article on Twitter about them, then went on the hunt to research them further. Apparently, due to the financial crisis in Greece, many people could not afford to care for their pets; but the communities and the government have stepped in to care for them. You can read  more about the issue here: https://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2013/06/greeces-stray-dogs-loved-and-cared-for-by-many/

About the book:

In present day Athens, a dog named Draco, who begins as a narrator of the story, sees as his job and work to lead tourists up the steps to the Parthenon. He is fed, watered, and bathed by the shop owners of the "plaka," and in this part of the book he becomes very attached to a baker named Akil, his wife, Maria, and their son, Jason, who are experiencing some dysfunction as a family. Through this family's interactions with Draco, the entire community is changed.

But when Draco sleeps at the top of the steps each night, he dreams of Daria, his first canine ancestor on the Acropolis, and through those dreams we come to know stone cutter Adelino, his wife, Diana, and their son, Tiro, whose lives revolve around the building of the Parthenon and the statue of Athena designed by architect, Pheidias. 

The author does a great job of giving voices to the various characters in the book, both canine and human. I enjoyed getting to know them all and learning more about a culture and time different from my own.

Draco and Daria have many adventures through their stories, and the author reveals themes of community, family, faith, and loss - and what a gift a single life, be it human or canine, can be.

If you love dogs and books that explore other locales, cultures, and times in history, you would probably enjoy The Dog on the Acropolis.

Happy Reading!