A Dream of Kings — Harry Mark Petrakis

At the heart of this New York Times best-selling novel, we find Leonidas Matsoukas, operator of the Pindar Counseling Service (solutions provided for all problems of life and love); proponent of wildly creative get-rich-quick schemes; passionately loving husband and father, equally passionate lover of the beautiful bakeshop proprietor Anthoula; inveterate gambler, mighty fighter... Leonidas Matsoukas, heels run down cuffs shabby, collar frayed, is the hero of "A Dreams of Kings."

Hero. That is the word. The gods have chosen you for eternal disaster, “his friend Cicero, the gambling-house dealer tells Matsoukas, "but you take every act that has been prepared for your punishment and turn it into some kind of triumph."

Every act but one - the tragedy that has befallen his only son, Stavros. And even that Matsoukas is determined to reverse.

For Stavros, Matsoukas pits himself against Fate, in the classic Greek sin of hubris. This is the story of that conflict - Matsoukas against the gods - a novel of enormous power huge laughter, both heartbreaking and triumphant.