SHORTLISTED FOR THE ANGLO-HELENIC LEAGUE RUNCIMAN AWARD 2025

"A brilliant exploration of Cyprus’s long history of cultural resilience. Superbly composed." -- Guardian

One of National Geographic's Summer Reads 2024. Think of a place where you can stand at the intersection of Christian and Arab cultures, at the crossroads of the British, Ottoman, Byzantine, Roman and Egyptian empires; a place marked by the struggle between fascism and communism and where the capital city is divided in half as a result of bloody conflict; where the ancient olive trees of Homer’s time coexist with the undersea cables linking the world's internet.

In Cypria, named after a lost Cypriot epic which was the prequel to The Odyssey, British Cypriot writer Alex Christofi writes a deeply personal, lyrical history of the island of Cyprus, from the era of goddesses and mythical beasts to the present day.

This sprawling, evocative and poetic book begins with the legend of the cyclops and storytelling at the heart of Mediterranean culture. Christofi visits salt lakes, crusader castles, mosques, and the eerie town deserted at the start of the 1974 war. He retells the particularly bloody history of Cyprus during the twentieth century and considers his own identity as traveler and returnee, as Odysseus was.

Written in sensitive, witty, and beautifully rendered prose, with a novelist's flair and eye for detail, Cypria combines the political, cultural, and geographical history of Cyprus with reflections on time, place, and belonging.

Author: ALEX CHRISTOFI

Language: ENGLISH

Pages: 352

Dimensions: 200X132X36

Year of publication: 2025