Tetralogy of the Times is a powerful document capturing the mood of the Cypriot people, in Chekhovian sensibility, from the years of their British colonial status to their present predicament. As the author points out, “The shocking events of 1955–1959 in Cyprus moved me—as they moved other writers, too—to attempt to express the events and the climate of that era. Of course, I did so in my own way and from my own spiritual and sentimental vantage point.”

The first section of the Tetralogy, “Times Immovable,” portrays the period before 1955 when Cyprus was a British colony. It is followed by “Times of Difficulty,” which canvasses the struggle of the Cypriot people for independence. “The skimpy independence of 1960,” to use the author’s words, was achieved as a result of the Zurich and London agreements, which established the Republic of Cyprus. The first years of independent Cyprus are captured in the third collection of stories called “Times of Affluence.” It brings the story to 1974, when the coup d’etat against Archbishop Makarios took place, an incident which gave Turkey the opportunity and excuse to invade Cyprus. The Turkish invasion and its consequences—political, social, and moral—are dealt with in the fourth section, “Times of Suffering.”

Tetralogy of the Times is an impressive saga chronicled through successful storytelling of an island and its people.