Review: The Summer Will Come

Soulla Christodoulou, The Summer Will Come (Kindle 2018)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39325268-the-summer-will-come?ref=nav_sb_ss_1_20

The story starts in 1953 with a blissful portrait of the picture-perfect mountain-side village of Kato Lefkara in southern Cyprus. The villagers are looking forward to a celebration of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, and 9 year old Elena and the other children will each be given a mug with the queen’s picture on it.
But all is not idyllic. There are scandals—the Principal’s daughter has eloped with someone from another village; her mother is beside herself. And life is hard. Mothers wake before sunrise to wash—in the same stone trough from which the donkeys drink–their children’s clothes for school, hand-me-downs from other village children. No one owns more than two sets of clothes, and the best set is saved for church. Elena spends her summers making lace, like her mother, to sell for export to Europe. The fare is simple—lentils, onions, bread, halloumi, olive oil—sometimes rabbit with onions and bay leaves and bourekia or pastelaki pastries on special occasions.
Elena dreams of England. Her father is in London, and has never sent for them. Yet an aunt living there promises to assist their immigration. Christaki’s father Loizos, also plans their family’s emmigration to England.
This ordinary picture is then punctuated, by ‘troubles’. Enter into the picture, the Cyprus Emergency. There is increased sympathy for Enosis (political union) with Greece, and some in the village, like Christaki, are joining EOKA (the National Organisation of Cypriot Fighters), and even the children are involved. They organise secretive missions to thwart British rule. Others, however, are not sympathetic and, equally secretly, are actively thwarting these missions. Christaki’s father, for one, supports the communist AKEL. Atrocities by British soldiers multiply, and the population becomes polarised along ethnic lines–Turkish-Cypriot and Greek-Cypriot.
The immigration to London is hard for both families, particularly for Elena’s, but there is a happy ending.
The Voice of Elena is very good; we really see a child’s view of playground politics, village goings-on, and we witness the new culture and country of England through Elena’s eyes. The deeper political issues involved in the Cyprus Emergency don’t really come across, which was disappointing for me, because I’m interested in history and politics—I would have loved to read more secret missions and thwarting of missions–but that’s OK, because we’re seeing most of the story through child’s eyes.
There are an awful lot of characters. In a sense, this is realistic, as in a village everyone is in everybody’s business, and everyone is married to somebody’s cousin or best friends with somebody’s brother. But I found it confusing. A third of the way through the book, I went back to page 1 and made a list of characters so I could keep all the relationships straight.
Most of the story is ordinary stuff—what people say, what they eat, where they go, how they celebrate Easter, etc., but for someone wanting to learn about Cypriot culture, this novel is a lovely eye-opener. If you like reading about different cultures and/or if you like family sagas, you will love this novel. If you are a Greek Cypriot you will cherish this novel like a rediscovered lost friend.