The Cypriot Academy has supported the researching, writing, editing and promotion of ‘The Cypriot’, a novel published by Dexter Haven Publishing, an imprint of Black Spring Press in July 2006.
‘The Cypriot’ is on sale or can be ordered at all good bookshops in the UK and Cyprus. Online it can be purchased from Amazon and Black Spring Press. The Greek version of ‘The Cypriot’, published by Dioptra as ‘Η προσμονη’ (‘The expectation’), is on sale or can be ordered at all good bookshops in Greece and Cyprus. Online it can be purchased from Dioptra.
A story of love across a divide of religion and identity, of passionate loyalties and heart-rending choices.
The 1950s: Cyprus is under British rule. The struggle for freedom begins. To the Orthodox Christian majority, freedom means enosis – union with Greece. To the Muslim minority, enosis means disaster. Andonis, a Christian, struggles for his own freedom: to be a tailor and escape a life in his father’s fields; to be a Cypriot and be with his forbidden Muslim love. At stake are family and friendships, beliefs and traditions, village and homeland.
The first promotional event for ‘The Cypriot’, which included a reading and discussion with the author, was filmed by Aspects Multimedia Productions and can be viewed as a webcast. Further readings and book signings have taken place at the House of Commons, Theatro Technis, Bruce Castle Museum, the Phoenix Cinema, Palmers Green Bookshop and branches of Waterstone’s in central and north London.
Since original publication the novel has enjoyed considerable success and acclaim. Highlights include:
• launched at the UK House of Commons under the auspices of the Friends of Cyprus parliamentary group;
• successful author tour of Cyprus;
• translation into Greek, becoming a top-five bestseller in Greece and a number one bestseller in bookshops in Cyprus;
• attracting praise from Cypriots on both sides of the current divide as an objective, constructive and conciliatory look at Cyprus’s recent troubled history;
• academic acknowledgement as an ethnography for Cyprus;
• endorsement by the Cypriot Ministry of Education as recommended reading in secondary schools on the island;
• helping to influence UK policy on Cyprus (solution by Cypriots for Cypriots) after being read by the then UK government envoy to Cyprus, Joan Ryan MP;
• relaunch as a mass-market paperback in the UK with promotion by both WHSmith and Waterstone’s as a key summer read in 2009.
For further details please contact mail@cypriotacademy.com.
Extracts from ‘The Cypriot’
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