The Sunrise

Author/Guide: Victoria Hislop

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1972 – Famagusta was once the most desirable resort in the Mediterranean. But now war has come to the island..

ISBN: 978-0755377787
Genre: Fiction

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What you need to know before your trail

History comes to life – Famagusta was once the most desirable resort in the Mediterranean. A couple are planning to open a luxury hotel such is the desire to enjoy the sun and good fortune that the island is enjoying. Greeks and Cypriots work and live in harmony and life is good.

However elsewhere on the island, life is not so good and in fact many of Famagusta’s 40 000 inhabitants are those who have escaped the ethnic violence of elsewhere.

With tensions rising as well as the heat, a Greek coup destroys the peace and Turkey invades to protect its people. People are forced from their homes and their lives are in danger. Two families remain. Victoria Hislop tells their story.

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Travel Guide

In 1972 Famagusta in Cyprus was the place to be – it was a glitzy and glamourous place to be and with only around 40,000 inhabitants it seemed to be a unique and special place too.

Famagusta was golden. The beach , the bodies of sunbathers and the lives of those who lived there were gilded by warmth and good fortune.

Greek and Turkish Cypriots worked happily side by side, many of them in the tourist industry – and in the novel in a new hotel called The Sunrise managed by ambitious Savvas Papacosta and his jewel-encrusted wife Aphroditi. The names sparkle with the chandeliers and clearly mark out the cultural differences -Emine Özhan is the hairdresser – The Özhan and Georgiou families reveal the personal divide against the backdrop of war.

Then in 1974 the Turks invaded and Famagusta was abandoned, surrounded by barbed-wired off and left to rot – where once the names sparkled with the chandeliers and clearly mark out the cultural differences -Emine Özhan is the hairdresser – The Özhan and Georgiou families reveal the personal divide against the backdrop of war.

The war is by no means the full story by any means – the people who stand up to it and stay and fight their ground are to be admired as their natural friendship is the best weapon against the incoming intruders.

Booktrailer Review

Susan @thebooktrailer:

The war and destruction of a happy community which reached across the cultural divide was heartbreaking to read – the families who fled, the attempts by others to hide jewellery and possessions in the hope of using them as security later was sad to learn.

The ones who stayed in their home – and quite right why shouldn’t they? – had a very hard time indeed and when I read about what they had to resort to such as stealing food and barely surviving, I realised I had never been so involved in such a situation – a war torn community where I as the reader felt so much a part of that their struggle was my concern and worry.

Famagusta was alive with rumours with what was happening in the capital city, a place that was so close but had always seemed a world away.

These are real people, people who have lived together for years and who share a sense of community and friendship – why should some political situation dictate who and what they should be for or against? Such is the ignorance of war and the strongest message for me of this novel. The people who experience a war are not those who start it, believe in it or even care for it. Victoria Hislop illustrates the sheer futility of the political and religious situation by showing us the human side – with very real and believable personalities. I felt anger, grief and admiration too for the people I shared time with in Famagusta via the pages of The Sunrise and have a new found respect for the country I feel I’ve now been to, where I’ve lived for a brief moment but most importantly for the people I’ve met – but who I will keep in my heart for a long time yet.