Magnette: A Cypress Odyssey

A strange bet, with a vintage car at stake, results in an unlikely job for a college professor. Once a week, for an hour or so, he is obliged to drive an old man around Cyprus. Almost as a hobby, the professor tries to uncover the old man’s secretive past and in the meantime gets a healthy dose of his own medicine, education, from this unlikeliest of sources. Mr. Aris, the old man, proves to be a fountain of interesting though often obscure and even questionable information. All this makes for a refreshingly new perspective on life and Cyprus. This book is a treasure trove of fascinating facts. But it is a lot more than that. It is a tale of forbidden love and the terrible consequences of war. It is an account of abject struggle against poverty and a heart-warming love affair with a country, Cyprus – and a car. Adventure, friendship, romance, ancient mythology, modern history, mysterious old codes and all these against the backdrop of this beautiful Mediterranean island we know so little about….