A suggestion of Caroline Guépin
The Sunrise has been written by Victoria Hislop, an English famous writer. She started writing in 2005 at the age of 45. Her fisrt novel « the island » has been sold at 2 million copies. For 8 years now, she has been living with her husband Ian Hislop, a journalist and humourist, 6 months in Crete and 6 months in Chelsea, England.
She finds her ideas in Greece when she travels. In 1977, as she was a student, she travelled 6 weeks in Greece and discovered Famagusta in Cyprus. It was 3 years after the civil war happened. When she went back there 8 years ago with her publisher, the city was still a ghost city. She felt so much anger and emotion that she started writting the book.
This book is a story in the story.
It is based on the conflict that happened in Cyprus in1974 between the Turkish and the Greek.
We follow the life of two modest families : one is Greek : the Georgious, and one is Turkish : the Ozkans.
Both have someone who works in the most luxurious hotel of Famagusta where we discover the richest owners : the Papacosta.
At the beginning, we can notice that Mrs Georgious and Mrs Ozkans are friends. Their husbands can't hear from the others and their children are mistrustful. They are in opposite with the Papacosta who are more cold.
When the war begins, the Ozkans and the Georgious have to live together and to face the war. The link between the two women is still strong. The two men discover that they have a common point of view about the events. The children become friends. The Papacosta lose everything they have : hotels, wealth, social range.
But some events can highlight the personnality.
Markos Georgious who seemed to be a great man, very helpful , is in fact selfish or opportunist (depends on the reader) !!
Huseyin Ozkan is very intelligent and could never engaged the others' life.
Aphroditi Papacosta is likeable. She 'll finally know herself and real life thanks to the terrible events.
Savvas Papacosta is oblivous. The war won't change anything in his life.
This book is well-written, well-documented about history but the characters could have been described more in depth. It can be overwhelming aswell because close to what is happening in Syria. It shows tolerance between people despite social differences.
