The Sunrise
The Island
The Return
The Thread
The Sunrise
The Last Dance and Other Stories
Copyright © 2014 Victoria Hislop
The right of Victoria Hislop to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Jacket photographs © Yiannis Kourtoglou/Demotix/Corbis (Famagusta),Jasper James/Getty Images (mother and baby) and ZoonarGmbH/Alamy (cactus)
Design by cabinlondon.co.uk
Map and timeline design by David Smith
Author photograph ©Ioanna Tzetzoumi
Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means, with prior permission in writing of the publishers or, in the case of reprographic production, in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency.
First published in Great Britain as an Ebook by Headline Publishing Group in 2014
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Cataloguing in Publication Data is available from the British Library
eISBN: 978 0 7553 7782 4
HEADLINE PUBLISHING GROUP
An Hachette UK Company
338 Euston Road
London NW1 3BH
Contents
In the summer of 1972, Famagusta in Cyprus is the most desirable resort in the Mediterranean, a city bathed in the glow of good fortune. An ambitious couple open the island’s most spectacular hotel, where Greek and Turkish Cypriots work in harmony.
Two neighbouring families, the Georgious and the Özkans, are among many who moved to Famagusta to escape the years of unrest and ethnic violence elsewhere on the island. But beneath the city’s façade of glamour and success, tension is building.
When a Greek coup plunges the island into chaos, Cyprus faces a disastrous conflict. Turkey invades to protect the Turkish Cypriot minority, and Famagusta is shelled. Forty thousand people seize their most precious possessions and flee from the advancing soldiers.
In the deserted city, just two families remain.
This is their story
Inspired by a visit to Spinalonga, the abandoned Greek leprosy colony, Victoria Hislop wrote
The Island
in 2005. It became an international bestseller, published in thirty languages with over 3 million copies sold worldwide, and was turned into a 26-part Greek TV series. She was named Newcomer of the Year at the British Book Awards and is now an ambassador for Lepra. Her affection for the Mediterranean then took her to Spain, and in
The Return
(also a number one bestseller) she wrote about the painful secrets of its civil war.
In her third novel,
The Thread
, Victoria returned to Greece to tell the extraordinary and turbulent tale of Thessaloniki and its people across the 20
th
century. Published in 2011 to widespread acclaim, it confirmed her reputation as an inspirational storyteller and was shortlisted for a British Book Award. It was followed by her much-admired collection of Greece-set short stories,
The Last Dance and Other Stories
.
Victoria divides her time between England and Greece.
Praise for
‘Hislop’s fast-paced narrative and utterly convincing sense of place make her novel a rare treat’
Guardian
‘Pleasingly complex . . . Hislop has done well to tell a story as diverse and tempestuous as Thessaloniki’s with such lightness of touch’
Spectator
Praise for
‘Aims to open the eyes and tug the heartstrings . . . Hislop deserves a medal for opening a breach into the holiday beach bag’
Independent
‘Like a literary Nigella, she whips up a cracking historical romance mixed with a dash of family secrets and a splash of female self-discovery’
Time Out
Praise for
‘Passionately engaged with its subject . . . the author has meticulously researched her fascinating background and medical facts’
The Sunday Times
‘A beautiful tale of enduring love and unthinking prejudice’
Observer
For Emily
With huge thanks to the following people for insight, inspiration, love, friendship and hospitality:
Efthymia Alphas
Antonis Antoniou
Michael Colocassides
Theodoros Frangos
Alexis Galanos
Maria Hadjivasili
Mary Hamson
Ian Hislop
William Hislop
Agatha Kalisperas
Costas Kleanthous
Yiangos Kleopas
Stavros Lambrakis
David Miller
Chrysta Ntziani
Costas Papadopoulos
Nicolas Papageorgiou
Alexandros Papalambos
Flora Rees
Hüseyin Silman
Vasso Sotiriou
Thomas Vogiatzis
Çi
ğ
dem Worthington
