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

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The ending (which I can't say too much of because of spoilers? maybe?) is a beautiful execution of the classic race against time, leaving you braced in your seat with bated breath, hoping that yes, they will meet, yes, things will work out in the end, no, no, please don't miss each other. I was pulled in by the title of this book, which, believe it or not, does relate to the story. Lefteri's prose is stunning. Her language shines with life and drew vibrant images to my mind when I read this book. Her descriptions compile most of the novel and they are definitely the highlight. In general, I tend to be bored with books centered around the descriptions of a particular place and time, and built up with details of the characters, and that don't really have a plot, but I wasn't. The author's style is so detailed that I could practically feel the hot summer wind and smell the egg-lemon soup. Much more than a beach read, this is a powerful well constructed piece of writing - Joclyn Manners FemaleFirst book critic 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. Christy's latest novel Songbirds will be published by Manilla on 8 July. You can find all of Christy's books on the Suffolk Libraries catalogue.

No matter what story I’m writing, whatever the circumstances are, it is the bond and the love between people, between friends, between a parent and child, a husband and a wife, that is the real heart of the story.

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. The book contains a lot of tragedy and violence. It is a sad tale of rejection and death. There is a fair amount of bad language and some blasphemy which I didn't appreciate. There is no graphic sexual detail although rape is eluded to and the after effects are obvious in the telling of the story. There is a lot of violence, it is not disturbingly graphic, just sad. 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*. I'd say it's a tentative 3.5-star book, just because I'm not sure.

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. 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. For one young woman, brought up without her mother and shunned by the community, the invasion brings an opportunity to, at long last, share her side of the story. To an invading soldier, it becomes a search for his one true love, lost years ago. And for a man far from the action, it brings memories of the past flooding into his mind – a woman, a child and a secret never told. A Watermelon, A Fish and a Bible is a breathtaking novel about love, loss, identity and what family really means. A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible by Christy Lefteri – eBook Details 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.While her parents successfully rebuilt their lives in London, she always felt a sense of something dark in their past.

Lefteri currently works at Brunel University, where she teaches creative writing. Previously she was a teacher of English as a Second Language and also worked in Greece volunteering for UNICEF. Adem Berker is a Turkish soldier and for him, the invasion of his former home is an opportunity to seek out the woman he has loved for so many years. Waiting for a chance to return, his only thought has been of her. And so, by cover of darkness, he searches every house, every pathway for a glimpse of that head of flames.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 shoe-maker who came to the town and took her heart away with him when he left. And how she has longed for him all these years. 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. 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. PDF / EPUB File Name: A_Watermelon_A_Fish_and__a__Bible_-_Christy_Lefteri.pdf, A_Watermelon_A_Fish_and__a__Bible_-_Christy_Lefteri.epub

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 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. It is for this reason that she writes poignant and realistic depictions of families living in exile and how these can cause a lot of pain and trauma. It is July 1974 and on a bright, sunny morning, the Turkish army has invaded the village of Kyrenia in Cyprus. For many people, this means an end to life as they know it. 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. Adem Berker is a Turkish soldier and for him, the invasion of his former home is an opportunity to seek out the woman he has loved for so many years. Waiting for a chance to return, his only thought has been of her. And so, by cover of darkness, he searches every house, every pathway for a glimpse of that head of flames. For Richard, growing old and grey in a dank bedsit in the centre of London, where the underground trains shake the foundations, the invasion of Cyprus stirs memories of his time as a British pilot, of a woman, a child and a secret it is becoming all too difficult to keep. Our Opinion: A debut novel, by an author who was born in 1980 to Greek Cypriot parents living in exile in London, very powerful and moving – Written so well the reader strikes an empithy with the characters, feeling the anger, sorrow and anguish about what was happening to them.The human stories behind news images of Syrian war refugees emerge in a novel both touching and terrifying. For Richard, growing old and grey in a dank bedsit in the centre of London, where the underground trains shake the foundations, the invasion of Cyprus stirs memories of his time as a British pilot, of a woman, a child and a secret it is becoming all too difficult to keep. On the other hand, her second novel is the story of a married couple forced to flee Syria which was inspired by real accounts of refugees recounted to her while she was volunteering for UNICEF in Athens.