Short-listed for the 2014 London Hellenic Prize

The touching story of a teenager who struggles with the eternal problems of adolescence, Betwixt & Between is a coming of age historical novel set in a politically divided country.

While the era of British colonialism in Cyprus is coming to a violent end, Dimitri tries to come to terms with the consequences of the political turmoil on his own life. Strengthened by his passion for medieval poetry and his love for the history of his island, he sets out to balance the Cypriot and English elements in his daily life. His quest for answers is complicated by romantic love for his British friend Anne and his physical attraction to his father’s maid Phrossou. Balancing between different identities, religion and communities, his personal search becomes symbolic of his country’s turbulent political situation.

A nostalgic story about family, love and friendship, Betwixt & Between is a powerful novel about the psychology of an adolescent torn between different worlds, and about the complexities of life and love in the social and historical mosaic of 1950’s colonial Cyprus. It is a beautifully-observed, historically-informed novel by the celebrated Greek historian and novelist.

Praise for this novel

Perhaps one of the most tender stories written about the years ’55-’59, seen through the eyes of a youth who wavers between spirituality and patriotism, between his admiration for T.S. Eliot and the sacrifice of Karaolis, a young resistance fighter. The end of the novel is remarkable, unexpected and fatefully ironic.

Anna Marangou — Politis Newspaper — April 26 2009

The scientific community recognises the long-standing devotion of Miltiades Hatzopoulos to science and research. He is a historian and fellow of the French Academy, director of the Research Centre for Greek and Roman Antiquity and vice president of the National Research Foundation. He has astounded everyone, however, by his involvement with literature and his first novel, has charmed readers both in Greece and in Cyprus, where the novel takes place a little before and a little after the beginning of the liberation struggle in 1955.

Olga Sella – Kathimerini Newspaper – 3 May 2009

His astonishing descriptions of the topography, particularly of Nicosia but also of the medieval monuments of Kyrenia and Famagusta, reveal the author’s deep knowledge and love for the island and its people.

Vassiliki Christi — Diavaseme.gr (the Greek literary website “Read Me”) — 15 June 2009

You see before you the entire social mosaic of Cyprus in the ‘50s. And also the political life and the character of the people, Greeks, Turks and British. As far as the style is concerned, it is one of the best novels that I have read lately.

Apostolos Diamantis — Eleftherotypia Sunday supplement — 6 June 2009

This is a novel to be read in one go. A charming narrative, coherent in its construction, with a well-finished depiction of character and a plot which takes unexpected turns. It keeps the reader in constant suspense.

Georgos Georgis — Diavazo (monthly literary review) — September 2009

Irene Noel-Baker

Book translations