A Stranger in Corfu
Alex Preston
Available as Hardback, eBook, Downloadable audio
12 February 2026
A tense, masterfully spun novel about espionage, shadowy morality and unravelled secrets set on the sun-drenched Greek island of Vidos
‘Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down’ TOM HOLLAND
‘Laced with thrills’ EVIE WYLD
‘Utterly gripping’ ADAM RUTHERFORD
On the Greek island of Vidos the past lingers like salt in the air. The inhabitants – former members of MI6 – are sent here to be forgotten. Exiled. Either too damaged or too compromised to be allowed to live freely.
For years, residents make the best of their fate – old enemies reconcile, long-lost friends swim together in the warm sea and estranged lovers share a bed once more. But secrets bind tightly. And when one of their own washes up dead, alliances fracture and a tide of suspicion begins to rise.
A vivid reimagining of a real, hidden slice of the British Intelligence Service’s history, A Stranger in Corfu is an exquisitely tense and masterfully spun novel about shadowy morality, unravelled secrets and the futility of trying to outrun the past.
“Le Carré meets The Durrells - A Stranger is Corfu is a brilliantly atmospheric thriller. Suspenseful, vivid and impossible to put down”
Tom Holland
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“Imagine the Slow Horses had parents who were also spies. Imagine those parents were on a small island, just off Corfu. Imagine that their chequered pasts might be catching up with them. And then realise you don’t need to imagine it because Alex Preston has done it for you with this beautifully taut, clever, classy thriller”
Natalie Haynes
“Taut, tense and utterly gripping: Preston evokes a wonderfully thrilling story from the dreamy Ioanian. Nothing short of brilliant”
Adam Rutherford
“A beautiful, taut novel laced with the thrills of lives half-lived and never escaped; of friendship, love and relentless betrayal beneath Corfu’s blazing sun and the restless, dark sea - where secrets threaten to drown them all. A story that haunts long after the last page”
Evie Wyld
“A stylish literary spy novel in which Agatha Christie meets the Cambridge Five, set on a sun-soaked island off Corfu. Sophisticated and stylishly self-aware, it weaves political intrigue with lyrical prose in an artful reimagining of the classic spy story”
Sarah Churchwell
Alex Preston
Alex Preston is an award-winning author of five novels including This Bleeding City, The Revelations, In Love and War and Winchelsea, as well as a book of non-fiction As Kingfishers Catch Fire. He writes regularly for the New York Times, the Economist and Harper’s Bazaar. He reviews books for the Observer’s New Review, Financial Times and Spectator. Alex is co-founder of the Corfu Literary Festival and Patron of Oxford Literary Festival.
@ahmpreston