Tropic of Cancer

Finished reading it, but is there anything left unsaid about it?

http://www.henrymiller.info/

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An interesting and rather daunting interview with professor  for philosophy Ernst Tugendhat at SignAndSight.com archive.

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To Live or Not to Live, To Die or Not to Die

Skimming through the pile of books received as an unexpected and precious gift, and coming across Colette’s books,  I didn’t fail to mention that I am not a fervent consumer of stories. It turns out I advanced a false statement. True to my habit of passing hastily through the pages of the books added to my reading list before I decide the order of the attack, I commenced and soon completed both collections of stories authored by Colette Ni Reamonn Ioannidou.

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Interview with Mr. Harry Mavromatis, author of Lost Edens

With the permission of Armida Publishing I am posting the interview with Mr. Harry Mavromatis, the author of Lost Edens. The interview was originally posted on Armida’s blog.

How would you describe your book to a new reader and why should somebody read it? 

This is a book about Cyprus the decade before it gained its independence from Britain.  The perspective is that of an adolescent who comes to the island with his parents from the United States, and consequently experiences a clash of cultures.  It is worth reading partly because the author’s family had connections at the very highest levels of Greek Cypriot and Greek society, and hence the author saw and heard things at first hand and describes events that are not common knowledge.  Additionally it is worth reading because it describes very candidly and graphically several of the islanders, and how life was like before Cyprus achieved a flawed independence that precipitated the Turkish invasion and occupation of its northern third.

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Lost Edens

Reading Lost Edens before setting foot on the island for the first time in 2004, not anticipating that after seven years, mirroring the length of the writer’s stay I would still be living in Cyprus and learning about its culture, past and present, would have made a fine introduction to a life I would only learn to appreciate years after.  Mr. Harry Mavromatis’s collection of essays is  the book of my childhood nostalgia, written in another language and of a different and distinct space, but sharing the same heartfelt stories about a carefree life at the countryside where each tree is known, nurtured and cherished like a true member of the family.

But  Lost Edens  is more than just memoirs of an idyllic Cypriot life in the beautiful Kyrenia of the 50ties. Political essays about British occupation and the Turkish invasion of the north side abound  towards the fin of the collection. Their mood is in stark contrast with one depicted in the essays on the peaceful life and the harmony of the period preceding the violent events, and while an informative lecture for a foreigner, they are possibly better suited for a local audience.

I could not finish this brief note on  Lost Edens without mentioning the cover design. Emanating of loss and of solitude, preparing the reader for what awaits him.

One can enjoy a book excerpt and author interview on the publisher website, Armida Publishing here ,  here or here.