Would it be so bad that I would feel let down and even more nostalgic and pained because of the poignant memories that it failed to evoke? 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’.

The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop | Hachette UK

We see the rise of the most palatial hotel Famagusta has ever seen and watch as golden couple Savvas and Aphroditi are torn in different directions away from each other. Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree.The hotel hairdresser, who knows Aphroditi well, as hairdressers tend to, is Emine Özhan, who is a close friend of Markos’s mother. THE LAST BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY I was washed away by myown tears when I finished My Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout. I feel like I’m licking my fingers and putting them in a wall socket, she says, pointing vaguely at the wall of the café: “I’m going to have some electric shocks, for sure”. Taking advantage of the influx of visitors are husband and wife hotel owners Savvas and Aphroditi Papacosta. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans.

Victoria Hislop | LoveReading Books By Victoria Hislop | LoveReading

Divim se spisateljičinom umijeću da toliko vjerno oživi povijest i ujedno složi divnu emotivnu priču. I found Savvas and Aphroditi Papacosta less sympathetic, I’m afraid, perhaps because the story starts in 1972 when they develop their luxury hotel, two years before the Cypriot coup takes place. 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. It was followed by her much-admired collection of Greek-set short stories, The Last Dance and Other Stories.Nearly half of the island’s hotel rooms were in the town, which was also home to Cyprus’s main port. With the missing component of character development I felt utterly frustrated accompanied by the gnawing feeling there was something monumental missing. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching.

The Sunrise Audiobook - Victoria Hislop - Listening Books The Sunrise Audiobook - Victoria Hislop - Listening Books

Much was looted, but I imagine that many of the buildings still contain personal items and possessions. Victoria piše tako divno, pronicljivo, tako umjetnički slikovito stvara likove i opisuje mjesta i njihove žitelje. They work for longer hours, never share a lot quality of time with their families, and usually have a terrible sex life.

Although Sofia only reveals that she was raised in a tiny Cretan village before moving to London, she eventually decides to help her daughter learn more by giving her a letter to take to an old friend in Crete. Victoria Hislop's fascinating new novel, The Sunrise, is set in 1972 in the tourist city of Famag The story starts with a description of the place, the author takes time to describe it, but then she spits out all those characters as at one breath. This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety.

The Sunrise – Victoria Hislop

I have to be honest and say that I did struggle initially with this book and I was probably nearly halfway through before beginning to engage with the story and the characters.On the verge of making an important decision, Alexis Fielding yearns to learn about her mother’s past. I also enjoyed The Thread, set in Thessaloniki and her collection of short stories The Last Dance and Other Stories. The Sunrise is the place to be and be seen and they are used to mixing with the rich and famous every day.