Whoever said, “You can’t go home again” was obviously not Greek. Stories of families with irreconcilable differences do not often come from Greek mouths. In fact, the more contentious a family situation is, the closer its members are likely to be – often sharing the same roof. A Greek home is not only a place to share happy times, but a venue to air – and share – life’s grievances. Those old Greek tropes, tragedy and comedy, have their place in the home as well, and Greeks are peculiarly adept at traversing between the two realms.

This is a skill Eleni Gage admirably displays in her first book, “North of Ithaka” (St. Martin’s Press, 256 pages, $23.95). A mix of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” and “Zorba the Greek,” “North of Ithaka” chronicles Ms. Gage’s trip back to rebuild the ancestral home that started as a source of pride and became her grandmother’s prison.

The home was the birthplace of Ms. Gage’s grandmother – also Eleni – who never made it from the town of Lia, on the Greek-Albanian border, to Worchester, Mass., where the rest of the family settled. The elder Eleni survived World War II in Greece without a husband, who lived in America during German and Italian occupations.

When communist guerrillas entered their village, following the retreat of the Axis powers from Greece, Eleni sent her children to meet their father in America, planning to join them later. But she never made it – instead she was detained and punished for plotting her children’s escape. The guerrillas used her home as their headquarters, her basement as their prison, and held trials and executions (including her own) within and around the walls of her home.

Elemi son, Nicholas, told this story in 1983’s “Eleni.” Mr. Gage returned to Greece as an adult to research his mother’s life and avenge her death. The resulting book was a moving tribute to her and examined the scourge of communism on the occupied territories after World War II. It went on to become a standard in Greek homes, and later a film of the same name starring John Malkovich and Kate Nelligan.

Two decades later, his daughter returned to Greece, against the better judgment of her aunts – who hadn’t set foot in their mother’s home since fleeing Greece as small children.They explained that she would be killed by Albanians, eaten by wolves, and stung by scorpions. Despite their reproaches and the temporary loss of her Manhattan lifestyle, Ms. Gage was intent on returning joy to the home her family thought irreconcilably marred by tragedy.

The shadow of the grandmother Ms. Gage never knew stands over her travelogue. Eleni Gatzoyiannis was a proud but humble woman. Her husband wanted her to have the best America could offer – she became the first resident of Lia to own a bed, and a phonograph, among other things – but such extravagances embarrassed Eleni. Despite her modesty, her affluence and the envy it inspired contributed to her harsh treatment and execution by the communists.

Ms. Gage straddles the cultures of her grandparents. Logical and modern, she spends “North of Ithaka” trying to strike a balance between the New Yorker she has become and the Greek girl who listens intently to the odd superstitions and traditions of her ancestors. In the course of 10 months, Ms. Gage comes to terms with her grandmother’s death and her own odd place between modern America and Greece. She learns how to reconcile her modern self with the part of her soul that yearns for her home country and submits to the nomadic lifestyle of her older relatives, who split their time between Massachusetts and Lia seasonally. She also gets mistaken for a traditional village girl, more than once.

At the end of her travel memoir, Ms. Gage notes, “As I looked at the photo of my grandparents, who died oceans apart, I realized that every family is a tragedy, because it exists for a limited time only. … Every family is a civilization, and all of them decline too quickly. Immersing myself in the village allowed me to extend my family a little longer and to expand its sphere to include many people who had been there at its beginning.” A tale of homecoming and reconciliation, “North of Ithaka” proves the regenerative powers of home. And it reminds that no matter what happens, when you’re Greek there’s always family nearby.