Athens has produced more memorable books than almost any other city in Europe, and a few are essential reading for a visitor.
Henry Miller, The Colossus of Maroussi (1941) — Miller's account of his pre-war months in Greece is the great modern foreigner's book about the country. The "Colossus" is the poet George Katsimbalis, but Athens emerges as the real protagonist: the heat, the light, the cafés of pre-war Plaka.
Patrick Leigh Fermor, Mani (1958) and Roumeli (1966) — Fermor's two travel books on Greece are loosely about the rural Peloponnese and central Greece, but the Athens of the 1950s drifts through both — a city of refugees and ouzo cafés on the edge of modernity.
Apostolos Doxiadis, Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture (1992) — a short modern novel set in Athens about mathematics, family, and obsession. The Athenian background is sharply observed.
Petros Markaris, the Inspector Costas Charitos detective novels — Markaris's series of crime novels is the best fictional guide to contemporary Athens, particularly the books written before and during the financial crisis of the 2010s. Deadline in Athens is the easiest place to start.
Eleni Sikelianos, The Book of Jon (2004) — for a Greek-American voice in the city.