American novelist and short-story writer whose exuberant and sensitive works deal with the lives of Greek immigrants in urban America.

Petrakis, the son of an Eastern Orthodox priest, attended the University of Illinois (1940–41) and held a variety of jobs to support himself while writing. His novels and stories, usually set in Chicago, include Lion at My Heart (1959), The Odyssey of Kostas Volakis (1963), A Dream of Kings (1966), The Hour of the Bell (1976), Nick the Greek (1979), Days of Vengeance (1983), and Ghost of the Sun (1990), a sequel to A Dream of Kings. He also published collections of short stories, a biography, and an autobiography, Stelmark: A Family Recollection (1970). In 1998 he cowrote a biography of the industrialist Henry Crown, and the following year he released another autobiographical work, Tales of the Heart: Dreams and Memories of a Lifetime.