A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible: A heartwarming tale of love amid war

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Christy Lefteri really knows how to write a book that will tug on your heart strings. She has an amazing way of coupling fiction with real and relevant social commentary on the state of the world, or the state the world has previously been in. The author was born to Cyprus refugees that moved to the UK in 1974, following the invasion of the island by Turkey. Born in 1980, Lefteri was raised in the British capital London, which is where she has lived most of her life. All across the USA, people are showing up dead. The deaths don't appear to be connected in any way until one particular death occurs and gets the Secretary of Defense's attention. He arranges for a task force to investigate. Much more than a beach read, this is a powerful well constructed piece of writing - Joclyn Manners FemaleFirst book critic

She became desperate to showcase the suffering she saw and put on paper the pain she sometimes saw in her parents’ eyes when she was growing up. I loved the story in this book and being married to a Cypriot refugee find the story to be close to my heart. I killed him because I am Turkish and he was Greek. But when I looked at his face, as he looked up at me blindly, I couldn't see what separated us.” In 2010, she published her debut work “A Watermelon, a Fish, and a Bible” but it was her second novel that made her name as an author to watch.Any issues with the book list you are seeing? Or is there an author or series we don’t have? Let me know! She gets to learn the darker elements of life as an immigrant and the stark choices that often leave them captive, vulnerable, or worse. The author does not shy away from showing the horrors of war or of community disapproval of inter-racial relationships, but most of the worst horrors take place offstage. This is an effective way of showing them without dwelling on them and of giving them impact. The focus is on the island and its people, and on living and loving through difficult circumstances. The message of that book is essentially that if there was more friendliness and integration between the different ethnic communities and less intolerance and strife, then everything in Aphrodite's garden would be lovely. This is trite, but it is also true, and the author puts across that message effectively by telling the story from each community. I’m interested in going to Greece to research the wild fires that happened in Mati a few years ago. I’m interested in learning more about the effects of climate change on communities and families.

This story, despite being so sad, was very charming. The characters were so bold and realistic, it almost felt like reading a report of real events. I loved how different they all were and this ended up being a very rare occasion in which I actually cared about every single perspective being offered to me. They were all fascinating and came together to tie the story up nicely. Nicely definitely not being a literal description of how it plays out. This is still, at the end of the day, a story about the devastating impacts of war and corrupt politics. It did these things the utmost justice in my opinion, accurately and beautifully handled. But for some, it is a chance to begin living again. Koki, a young villager, feared and hated by her neighbours for her startling red hair, has spent her life in shadow. But held captive in the house to which the women of Kyrenia have been brought, she can at last speak to them as an equal. She can tell them her story of a summer long ago. The young, Turkish shoe-maker who came to the village and took her heart away with him when he left. And how she has longed for him all these years and never known why he left, what took him away. The best bits of this book are the beginning and the end. It starts off with this really fairy-tale like sequence, full of symbolism. It's beautiful, and sad, setting you up to journey through war-torn Cyprus in 1974. Lefteri moves you through the capture of Kyrenia through several viewpoints: Maroulla's childish innocence, Adem Berker's loss and guilt, Richard's longing, Commander Serkan Demir's anger and hatred, Koki's fear. Sometimes it's too much--the core of this story feels like Koki's, the way she's caught between Greeks and Turks, an outcast to both groups as much as she is deeply tied to both. I loved the way Adem's, Richard's and Koki's stories weaved in and out of each other, I didn't care so much about Serkan (Lefteri admitted that he was a rather two-dimensional character without an arc) or what his whole confusing interaction with the baby was about, and whilst I loved the thread of the rose and the petals and the innocent fairy tale of Maroulla that both starts and ends the novel, she wasn't ultimately very important to the story. Whilst she acted as a sort-of impetus for Koki to keep moving, keep trying to survive, I kind of feel that she could have been replaced by anything (or anyone) else. Ocr tesseract 4.1.1 Ocr_detected_lang en Ocr_detected_lang_conf 1.0000 Ocr_detected_script Latin Ocr_detected_script_conf 0.9611 Ocr_module_version 0.0.6 Ocr_parameters -l eng Old_pallet IA19863 Openlibrary_edition

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It is July 1974 and on a bright, sunny morning, the Turkish army has invaded the town of Kyrenia in Cyprus. For many people, this means an end to their ordinary lives. But for some, it is a chance to begin living again. Book Genre: 20th Century, Cultural, Fiction, Greece, Historical, Historical Fiction, Literature, War The novel has garnered critical praise from the likes of authors such as Benjamin Zephaniah and Daljit Nagra. The middle dragged a little as events played out over the five days. There's an immersion in memories of the past, both a sense of longing for what was as well as a lingering regret over how things played out over the years. Ostracism of the Other seems to be a key theme which recurs over and over again, both on a personal and a national level, with the microaggressions of the Greek-Cypriots against Adem and Koki seemingly representative the aggressions of the Greek-Cypriots towards the Turkish-Cypriots and the British in their midst on a national level. In retaliation, the Turkish soldiers rape the women and murder the men on a macro scale of revenge, even though these specific women have done nothing to them personally. Again, I feel that the reading of this book was slightly impacted by the fact that I was reading it in spurts, mainly while on various trains, and whilst really sleepy. Still, this goes to show that it wasn't particularly exciting to me, because I've powered through books in the middle of the night whilst dead-tired because I really wanted to know what happens next. At any rate, I liked it enough despite the fact that it's historical fiction and not fantasy, so *shrug*. Thinking it over, I'm not too sure if the 4-star is impacted by bias. Now that I'm writing the review, I'm wavering down to about a 3-star, so I'd say it's a tentative 3.5-star book, just because I'm not sure.

The story is told from the point of view of three individuals, a Greek Cypriot woman with red hair, a Turkish Cypriot man now in the invading Turkish army and an Englishman formerly an RAF pilot stationed in Cyprus. These three characters are connected and we learn how through their memories and them telling their stories to others. All three are more integrated than was usual for their respective communities and have had love affair which crossed racial boundaries. Archbishop Makarios had been something of a thorn in the side of the British in Cyprus in former years, but he was primarily a Cypriot nationalist, not a proponent of Enosis, the union of Cyprus with Greece. The 1974 war was bad for both Greek and Turkish Cypriots and few in either community had wanted it. of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible by Christy Lefteri

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The police believe she is just another runaway house help but Petra her employer thinks there is more to it. Petra’s investigations lead her to the many friends Nisha had working as nannies in the neighboring houses. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2020-12-10 08:23:19 Boxid IA1998922 Camera USB PTP Class Camera Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier raised his arms like a magician or religious leader or politician; it was hard to tell which in this day and age”

No I can’t really say that there is. However, I would say that every book that I have read has changed me in some small way. It is a beautifully written, moving, compassionate, and powerful story that showcases the triumph of the human spirit. I wouldn’t actively seek out further books as they don’t really fall into my preferred genres but they are informative, somewhat disturbing and structured with great research, thought and some personal knowledge. Even though her parents loved her very much and she led a very happy childhood, she always sensed that something unsettling had happened to them. For some reason, she intuitively knew that they left because things were not all good and happy.

So she lives outside the town and hides from her neighbours' eyes. But, held captive with the very women who have made her life so lonely, Koki is finally able to tell them the truth. To talk of the Turkish shoemaker who came to the town and took her heart away with him when he left. Readers in Suffolk will be familiar with your novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo. How did you find Nuri's voice in the book and what was it like to write? Was there anything you nearly left out of the final version? So much more than another romantic beach read, this is a powerful piece of writing' Sunday Telegraph. --Sunday Telegraph For one young woman who grew up without a mother who had always been an outcast in the community, the invasion presents a chance to share her story. Everyone has always talked about Koki. They never believed she was her father's daughter and her mother died too soon to quiet their wagging tongues. And when she became pregnant and there was no sign of a husband, her fate was sealed.