Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving (1832) is the book that made Granada famous to the English-speaking world. Irving spent several months living inside the Alhambra — then partly inhabited, partly ruined — and wrote a collection of stories and sketches about Moorish Spain. Romantically embroidered but historically grounded, it is still the best introduction to the palace complex and the city.
The Poet in New York (Poeta en Nueva York) by Federico García Lorca. Lorca was Granada-born and his poetry is inseparable from the city's landscape, light, and flamenco culture. This collection, written during his time in New York in 1929–30, is his most experimental work — a useful counterpoint to the romanticised Granada that Irving presents.
Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) by Federico García Lorca. His most performed play, drawn from a real murder that happened in the Almería countryside in 1928. The Andalucían landscape, the code of honour, the heat — all of it is recognisably Granadan.
The Hand of Fatima (La mano de Fátima) by Ildefonso Falcones. A long, detailed historical novel set during the Moorish uprising of 1568–71 in the Alpujarras mountains south of Granada. Dense but rewarding for understanding the deep roots of the city's Moorish-Christian conflict.