A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible cover art

A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible

By: Christy Lefteri
Narrated by: Art Malik
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £19.99

Buy Now for £19.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A moving novel of love and war by the author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo.

It is July 1974 and on a bright, sunny morning, the Turkish army has invaded the town of Kyrenia in Cyprus. For many people, this means an end to life as they know it. But for some, it is a chance to begin living again.

Everyone has always talked about Koki. They never believed she was her father's daughter and her mother died too soon to quiet their wagging tongues. And when she became pregnant and there was no sign of a husband, her fate was sealed.

So she lives outside the town and hides from her neighbours' eyes. But, held captive with the very women who have made her life so lonely, Koki is finally able to tell them the truth. To talk of the Turkish shoemaker who came to the town and took her heart away with him when he left.

And how she has longed for him all these years.

Meanwhile, Adem Berker finds himself back in Kyrenia, his former home, now as a member of the invading force. Here he left everything he ever wanted and, by cover of darkness, risking his life, he is searching every house, every cafe, every old pathway, for just a glimpse of the only woman he has ever loved. For listeners of The Island, The Book Thief and The Kite Runner.

©2010 Christy Lefteri (P)2010 Quercus Editions Limited Fiction Historical Fiction Heartfelt Tear-jerking Island

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Color of Our Sky cover art
The Water Thief cover art
The Seamstress of Ourfa cover art
The Missing Daughter cover art
A House Without Windows cover art
When the Moon Is Low cover art
Cereus Blooms at Night cover art
A Cup of Friendship cover art
Leonora in the Morning Light cover art
The Cypress Maze cover art
Dark Neighbourhood cover art
That Bonesetter Woman cover art
The Complete Jaipur Trilogy cover art
The Skylark's Secret cover art
The Silence of Scheherazade cover art
The Tears of Monterini cover art
All stars
Most relevant  
It took me a little while to get into this, mainly due to the demands of work and changes of 2020. However, once I picked it up again and got in the flow I was hooked. Beautifully written and narrated and a beautiful ending, leaving me hoping for more. I’d definitely recommend this.

Loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a Cypriot, I thought I would find this harrowing - to read about the devastating invasion of our beloved island in 1974.
Yes, it was a difficult read at times, but I guess it was because of my connection to the story.
Very well-told, Christy Lefteri is an amazing writer and can't be faulted.

Superb

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This was ok and certainly the last few chapters were the most enjoyable. I found the descriptive writing just too much and too long - it felt quite clunky at times. However, it was a decent, if somewhat predictable and improbable, story and it did draw a tear at the end. Art Malik’s narration was lovely.

Decent, but too much description

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Another excellent book by Christi Lefteri. Beautifully written, she gives a personalised insight to another world conflict that I had little knowledge of.

brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Any book which is set against a background of real events happening in real places needs to be well researched in order to get the detail correct - particularly when the events are relatively recent and there are still people who remember ( and many of whom are likely to want to read the book) This book is not well researched however and is scattered with inaccuracies and inconsistencies. Some are minor and just irritate eg Greek coffee is never served with olives, zivania not ouzo is the drink of choice on Cyprus And everyone, even the English, refer to Avgolemono soup not "egg and lemon" soup. However there are larger issues which for me completely invalidated the story eg the entirely implausible journey by rowing boat from Kyrenia. And the taxi drive from Pyrgos to Limassol accomplished so easily in the story, in reality would not only have taken hours but would have been extremely dangerous as the road taken skirts the Turkish Cypriot enclave of Kokkina which was a Turkish military area. No Greek Cypriot would go anywhere near there in normal times and certainly not in the days just after the Turkish invasion. Even the London based parts of the story have problems. Richard's bedsit is located in a block of flats on Queen Victoria street near the Mansion house. Except that Queen Victoria street is not and never has been a residential area. It is full of office blocks not blocks of flats. And as for the taxi fare from the airport to Richard's bedsit being £1. Even back in 1974 taxi fares from Heathrow into London were eye- wateringly expensive. I know this is nit-picking and that every work of fiction uses artistic licence, but for me all of these little issues accumulated to ruin the storyline of a book I really wanted to like.

Art Malik's narration is as professional as ever and helped me get through the book but, another niggle, why wasn't he coached on the pronunciation of the Greek words/names

I wanted to like his book but

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved the Beekeeper of Aleppo but this is a bit of a let down after that because the story moves from periods of time and place so much that for me there is no continuity. I won't finish the book.
Art Malik has an amazing voice and is an excellent narrator

A little let down

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Ark Malik reads with such passion and he is just the right person to tell this story. You cannot fail to be moved by it .

Heart wrenching

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A beautiful story both sad and happy. Tempted to read more of Christy Lefteri novels.

Loved it

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This book didn't engage with me or vice versa I should say., not tte way The Kite Runner by Khaled Hossaini did. I felt this story was trying to mirror that but it failed in it's premise. The beginning confused me very much with all the to-ing and fro-ing in time. This story was just too sad all the way through, though at the very heart of it all was a love story, it was a depressing, fruitless love story. The narration I must say was Excellent by Art Malik. I desperately need to read a "cheer me up book" now.

Too Sad

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully written and narrated book, I did prefer the beekeeper or Aleppo though not sure why. Well
Worth buying this one regardless.

A beautiful book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews