This collection brings you stories that bring to life the human side of conflicts, past and present about the partition of Cyprus, the Indian Ocean Slave Trade and Palestine.
In this collection are:
BRANDY SOUR - by Constantia Soteriou and translated from Cypriot Greek by Lina Protopapa
A poignant tale of a hotel and its guests – and also the story of modern Cyprus and its civil war
BRANDY SOUR is a moving, original, and playful novel set in the first luxury hotel in the Middle East, the Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia. Situated in the middle of what became the Green Line dividing North and South, it went from an iconic symbol of Cypriot modernisation to the site of conflicts during the Civil War and finally the UN headquarters building in the war’s aftermath. It’s bedrooms, glamorous public spaces and lush gardens are the setting for this tale of modern Cypriot history through different characters staying through time, and their favourite drinks. We meet the Egyptian king Farouk in exile who needs to drown his sorrows with a drink disguised to look like tea, the Turkish porter who can’t do without the ayran that he found on the wrong side of the Green Line, the UN ambassador who drinks lemonade in a crisis and the cleaning lady who only needs her holy water. These characters are the sometimes brave, sometimes terrified, often reluctant actors in history and witnesses of the violence that characterised the second half of the twentieth century in Cyprus. BRANDY SOUR won the 2023 National Book Prize in Cyprus and Constantia Soteriou won the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
SAMAHANI - Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin and translated from Arabic by Mayada Ibrahim and Adil Babikir
Samahani means ‘forgive me’ in Swahili, two words that stand in stark contrast to everything that happens in this novel.
Set in 19th century Zanzibar, this is a dark story of slavery, cruelty and vengeance, that depict the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, that turns their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. Through the relationship between a spoilt, scheming, powerful Omani princess and her eunuch African slave Sundus, captured and castrated by Arab slavers, Sakin builds a grand narrative that paints a picture of barbarism and man’s inhumanity to man and becomes a furious cry against persecution in all its forms.
THE PALACE ON THE HIGHER HILL - Karim Kattan and translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
The Palestinian mash-up of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE.
Faysal receives a mysterious letter about the death of an aunt he can’t remember. Leaving his lover and his life in Europe behind, he returns to the village of his birth in Palestine and to his family’s extraordinary, deserted house, the palace on the higher hill. With a backdrop of violence and the permanent threat from settlers, Faysal wanders the once-lavish rooms as characters from the past return to shed light on his family story and on the story of his people.
This collection brings you stories that bring to life the human side of conflicts, past and present about the partition of Cyprus, the Indian Ocean Slave Trade and Palestine.
In this collection are:
BRANDY SOUR - by Constantia Soteriou and translated from Cypriot Greek by Lina Protopapa
A poignant tale of a hotel and its guests – and also the story of modern Cyprus and its civil war
BRANDY SOUR is a moving, original, and playful novel set in the first luxury hotel in the Middle East, the Ledra Palace Hotel in Nicosia. Situated in the middle of what became the Green Line dividing North and South, it went from an iconic symbol of Cypriot modernisation to the site of conflicts during the Civil War and finally the UN headquarters building in the war’s aftermath. It’s bedrooms, glamorous public spaces and lush gardens are the setting for this tale of modern Cypriot history through different characters staying through time, and their favourite drinks. We meet the Egyptian king Farouk in exile who needs to drown his sorrows with a drink disguised to look like tea, the Turkish porter who can’t do without the ayran that he found on the wrong side of the Green Line, the UN ambassador who drinks lemonade in a crisis and the cleaning lady who only needs her holy water. These characters are the sometimes brave, sometimes terrified, often reluctant actors in history and witnesses of the violence that characterised the second half of the twentieth century in Cyprus. BRANDY SOUR won the 2023 National Book Prize in Cyprus and Constantia Soteriou won the 2019 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.
SAMAHANI - Abdelaziz Baraka Sakin and translated from Arabic by Mayada Ibrahim and Adil Babikir
Samahani means ‘forgive me’ in Swahili, two words that stand in stark contrast to everything that happens in this novel.
Set in 19th century Zanzibar, this is a dark story of slavery, cruelty and vengeance, that depict the agonies of the native Zanzibaris at the hands of both Europeans and Arabs, that turns their apparent island paradise into a living hell of cruelty and exploitation. Through the relationship between a spoilt, scheming, powerful Omani princess and her eunuch African slave Sundus, captured and castrated by Arab slavers, Sakin builds a grand narrative that paints a picture of barbarism and man’s inhumanity to man and becomes a furious cry against persecution in all its forms.
THE PALACE ON THE HIGHER HILL - Karim Kattan and translated from French by Jeffrey Zuckerman
The Palestinian mash-up of BRIDESHEAD REVISITED and ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE.
Faysal receives a mysterious letter about the death of an aunt he can’t remember. Leaving his lover and his life in Europe behind, he returns to the village of his birth in Palestine and to his family’s extraordinary, deserted house, the palace on the higher hill. With a backdrop of violence and the permanent threat from settlers, Faysal wanders the once-lavish rooms as characters from the past return to shed light on his family story and on the story of his people.
