In the wake of a brutal war, Cyprus is an island divided, and holding an uncertain peace. Hidden within the shattered landscape of the Green Line, the militarised No Man's Land, is the Library of Nicosia. Accessed from both sides of the Green Line, the library is a gateway for secret contact between friends, families, lovers.





Turkish Yasemin and Greek Nicos have been driven apart by artificial identities and animosities neither of them understand. The golden thread that binds them is the library, and a book that keeps a message. Vassos, the librarian, works in secret as keeper of the flame, hoping that one day the lovers might find their way home to each other.

In The Library of Nicosia, Christy Lefteri, international bestselling author of The Beekeeper of Aleppo and Songbirds, returns to Cyprus, the island her family fled after the war, to explore a community riven by conflict, and the acts of determination and courage that lie at the heart of what it is to love, and to be human.



Christy Lefteri has a PhD in Creative Writing from Brunel University and lectured in the Creative Writing department there. Acclaimed for her compassionate, haunting and resonant storytelling, Christy is the author of four novels, including the international bestseller, The Beekeeper of Aleppo, which tells the heartbreaking story of a young Syrian refugee couple seeking sanctuary, and won The Aspen Words Literary Prize. Songbirds, her third novel, also a bestseller, was inspired by the real-life disappearance of domestic workers in Cyprus. Her fourth novel The Book of Fire, was set against the backdrop of the forest fires of Greece.  It was published in 2023.    

Christy Lefteri's novels are sold in over 40 countries.