Loved it!

It took me a little while to get into this, mainly due to the demands of work and changes of 2020. However, once I picked it up again and got in the flow I was hooked. Beautifully written and narrated and a beautiful ending, leaving me hoping for more. I’d definitely recommend this.

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Superb

As a Cypriot, I thought I would find this harrowing - to read about the devastating invasion of our beloved island in 1974.
Yes, it was a difficult read at times, but I guess it was because of my connection to the story.
Very well-told, Christy Lefteri is an amazing writer and can't be faulted.

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Decent, but too much description

This was ok and certainly the last few chapters were the most enjoyable. I found the descriptive writing just too much and too long - it felt quite clunky at times. However, it was a decent, if somewhat predictable and improbable, story and it did draw a tear at the end. Art Malik’s narration was lovely.

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brilliant

Another excellent book by Christi Lefteri. Beautifully written, she gives a personalised insight to another world conflict that I had little knowledge of.

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I wanted to like his book but

Any book which is set against a background of real events happening in real places needs to be well researched in order to get the detail correct - particularly when the events are relatively recent and there are still people who remember ( and many of whom are likely to want to read the book) This book is not well researched however and is scattered with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Some are minor and just irritate eg Greek coffee is never served with olives, zivania not ouzo is the drink of choice on Cyprus And everyone, even the English, refer to Avgolemono soup not "egg and lemon" soup. However there are larger issues which for me completely invalidated the story eg the entirely implausible journey by rowing boat from Kyrenia. And the taxi drive from Pyrgos to Limassol accomplished so easily in the story, in reality would not only have taken hours but would have been extremely dangerous as the road taken skirts the Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina which was a Turkish military area. No Greek Cypriot would go anywhere near there in normal times and certainly not in the days just after the Turkish invasion. Even the London based parts of the story have problems. Richard's bedsit is located in a block of flats on Queen Victoria street near the Mansion house. Except that Queen Victoria street is not and never has been a residential area. It is full of office blocks not blocks of flats. And as for the taxi fare from the airport to Richard's bedsit being £1. Even back in 1974 taxi fares from Heathrow into London were eye- wateringly expensive. I know this is nit-picking and that every work of fiction uses artistic licence, but for me all of these little issues accumulated to ruin the storyline of a book I really wanted to like.

Art Malik's narration is as professional as ever and helped me get through the book but, another niggle, why wasn't he coached on the pronunciation of the Greek words/names

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26 people found this helpful

A little let down

I loved the Beekeeper of Aleppo but this is a bit of a let down after that because the story moves from periods of time and place so much that for me there is no continuity. I won't finish the book.
Art Malik has an amazing voice and is an excellent narrator

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Heart wrenching

Ark Malik reads with such passion and he is just the right person to tell this story. You cannot fail to be moved by it .

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Loved it

A beautiful story both sad and happy. Tempted to read more of Christy Lefteri novels.

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Is it me?

I really, really wanted to like this book. I had listened to the Bee Keeper of Aleppo and enjoyed it, and with Art Malik's narration I thought I was in for another treat. However, I only managed to get two thirds of the way through before I gave up on this book. It just felt too bitty, I had trouble defining the characters. I may come back to this book, but not for now ..

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15 people found this helpful

Good book but…

I take stars off for a couple of reasons:
1. The narrator I felt, whilst good, overdramatised some parts so that everything felt too weighty and depressing. Some parts could have been read more simply and neutrally.
2. In some places the story became a bit trite and predictable.

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