The Sunrise

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There is change on Cyprus too. Clashes between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots come to a head when in 1974, a Greek coup d'etat results in Turkey invading Cyprus, and Famagusta becomes a war zone. Hislop captures well the dreamy and Edenic time before the occupation as well as the fear and chaos afterward." - Kirkus Heartbreaking... A fascinating insight into a part of Mediterranean history that isn't often explored." - Essentials (UK) In 1974 everything comes to a head. The island is divided and the tourists flee. Greek and Turk Cypriots are once again at war, the violence escalates, the streets are dangerous, the hotels lie empty except for the mice and the rats. An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale.

Thankfully, he didn’t have anything drastic to say about her latest novel, The Sunrise, set in the sunshine resort of Famagusta in Cyprus in 1972, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots live in harmony. It centres on an ambitious couple who open the most glitzy hotel there – The Sunrise – only for prosperity and happiness to be scuppered by the conflict between Turkey and Greece, with devastating effects on both Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities. The idea came out of a conversation with some school teachers in Crete.” said Victoria “They commented that there were so many themes in the story that were as relevant to children as to adults but felt that the original novel was a little too grown-up for many of them. I realised that much of the book is actually about children and their experiences of stigma and loss, so this has been a wonderful experience for me, to look at things through their eyes. Writing for children requires a whole different set of skills and I hope they will enjoy reading it.” Victoria Hislop για δύο πράγματα είναι γνωστή. Για την αγάπη της για την Ελλάδα και για το βιβλίο της "Το νησί", το οποίο αγαπήθηκε τόσο που έφτασε στο σημείο να μεταφερθεί στη μικρή οθόνη. Το συγγραφικό της ταλέντο έχετε τρίτο κατά ιδρωμένο, όχι γιατί δεν γράφει καλά, αλλά επειδή δεν γράφει τόσο καλά ώστε να μπει στην κορυφή της λίστας των χαρακτηριστικών της που την καθιστούν ιδιαίτερη. Γιατί, ας μην κοροϊδευόμαστε, αν με "Το νησί" δεν είχε αγγίξει με τόσο ευαισθησία ένα τόσο λεπτό θέμα για τον ελληνισμό, το πιθανότερο ήταν να μην ξέραμε καν ποια είναι ή αν την μαθαίναμε, να μην την είχαμε τοποθετήσει ως κοινό τόσο ψηλά. Το τελευταίο της πόνημα, "Η Ανατολή", καταπιάνεται με το πονεμένο θέμα της Κύπρου και -δυστυχώς-, όχι με τρόπο ιδανικό. Hislop, αλλά δεν μπορώ να κάνω διαφορετικά. Ήδη ανέφερα πως την θεωρώ μια εξαιρετικά υπερτιμημένη συγγραφέα. Ναι μεν τα κείμενά της είναι διάχυτα από συναίσθημα, όμως αυτό δεν είναι πάντα αρκετό ώστε να σε κερδίσει ένα λογοτεχνικό εγχείρημα. Ειδικά όταν γίνεται με τρόπο αφελή, επιφανειακό, επίπεδο και ουδέτερο, όπως στην περίπτωση της "Ανατολής", παρά που η συγγραφέας κάνει απέλπιδες προσπάθειες να μας πείσει για το αντίθετο. Ως Γιώτα, βρήκα πολύ πεζούς και τους χαρακτήρες της, και το ψυχογράφημά τους, αλλά και το πως αλληλεπιδρούν δεδομένων των συνθηκών όπου έχουν βρεθεί και πολύ περισσότερο, δεδομένου του πως στην πραγματικότητα θέλει η ίδια η δημιουργός να μας το περάσει όλο αυτό. Ναι μεν αντιλαμβανόμαστε που το πάει αλλά, για μένα, αποτυγχάνει παταγωδώς αφού, στο τέλος, έπιασα τον εαυτό μου να μην ενδιαφέρεται για κανέναν ήρωα, ούτε για την κατάληξη αυτού. Leprosy has always had a stigma attached to it as a disease. There are the awful deformities if it’s left untreated, the physical appearance of people who’ve lost limbs and it’s a condition thought of as having largely gone away – but it still is prevalent today in some parts of the world.”

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Sometimes poignant but never upsetting, this book highlights the strength of love, friendship and resilience over adversity. Complemented wonderfully by Gill Smith’s beautiful illustrations, this is an ideal book for older early readers who are ready explore more complex themes associated such as coping with adversity and having respect for others who may be different from themselves. This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022. The island of Cyprus provides the setting for this novel of politics and romance as the action moves from the pastoral to the volatile.

I’m a big fan of Victoria Hislop’s previous three novels, ‘The Thread’, ‘The Return’, and ‘The Island’ so was expecting a lot from the new one, ‘The Sunrise’. I was a little disappointed and it’s difficult to pin down why. The Cyprus setting is great, the historical setting is stirring, the characters… I didn’t connect as well with them as I did with Alexis and Eleni in ‘The Island’. Finally, I decided that the difference between ‘The Sunrise’ and the Hislop’s earlier books is that it wears its history a little too heavily. That said, it is a fascinating period and one I knew little about, except a memory of a distant cousin who lived near Kyrenia at the time. He and his family were forced to flee their house, empty-handed, running across open countryside towards a cave, dodging bullets being fired from an airplane. Set in Cyprus in the summer of 1972, it follows the story of an ambitious couple about to open the island’s most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony. Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Ozkansm, are among many who move to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island.Vibrant… Hislop brings history to life in this compelling tale’ ( Tatler)Hislop brings her consummate storytelling skills to this enthralling tale of love, marriage and a community all put to the test ( Woman & Home) Bestselling novelist Victoria and Private Eye editor Ian met at Oxford University, their daughter Emily graduated from the same esteemed establishment and their son William is currently studying history there.

It takes him about two days to go through it, and at the end of the two days he gives me a tutorial. It’s not problematic. We were at the same university doing the same degree [English] at the same time,” she says.

The island writer on coming back to Lytham, writing, her new book and how maybe women should run the world.

Victoria married Private Eye editor Ian Hislop on 16 April 1988 in Oxford; the couple have two children, Emily Helen (born 1990) and William David (born 1993). [8]