Christy has a very poetic form of writing with lots of personification, vivid imagery and alliteration used to excellent effect. 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. 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. Christy Lefteri writes a deeply empathetic and poignant narrative of the human stories we don’t get to hear about the immigrant experience.

The book (or part of it) is set during the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus which eventually led to the island being partitioned. Many Greek Cypriots fled and the title is the only three things one couple take from their house when they leave (they were about to cook). I think it is a symbol of the panic and chaos of the time.

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 life as they know it. But for some, it is a chance to begin living again.

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. 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. For many residents, this is the end of their idyllic lives but for some, it is a chance for rebirth.

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 As Afra and Nuri travel across a landscape broken by the war, they have to confront not only their own unspeakable loss and pain but a lot of danger. It is July 1974 and on a bright, sunny morning, the Turkish army had invaded the town 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.Even though her parents loved her very much and she led a very happy childhood, she always sensed that something unsettling had happened to them. For some reason, she intuitively knew that they left because things were not all good and happy. Christy Lefteri really knows how to write a book that will tug on your heart strings. She has an amazing way of coupling fiction with real and relevant social commentary on the state of the world, or the state the world has previously been in. The story is about a domestic worker called Nisha who has crossed oceans to give her child a future. By day she cares for Petra's daughter; at night she mothers her own little girl by the light of a phone. Nisha's lover, Yiannis, is a poacher, hunting the tiny songbirds on their way to Africa each winter. His dreams of a new life, and of marrying Nisha, are shattered when she vanishes. No one cares about the disappearance of a domestic worker, except Petra and Yiannis. As they set out to search for her, they realise how little they know about Nisha. What they uncover will change them all. 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.

The above description sums up the extent of the plot, with the addition of a few unexpected turns. It is not developed much further, but the core of the novel focuses on the descriptions of life in the village and it's inhabitants. I also enjoyed the sharp contrasts between the cultures of the people living in Cyprus to those in London. Lefteri also captures the hidden differences as well and the obvious ones in her scenery portraits.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.