A Good Year

“An absolute gem”
— Historical Novel Review

“Rich, resonant, beautifully paced”
— Attitude

“Captivating”
— Mechanics’ Institute Review

Rural Cyprus, 1925. Despo is recently married, heavily pregnant and deeply afraid. The twelve days of Christmas are beginning – the time when, according to local folklore, creatures known as kalikantzari come up from Hell to wreak havoc. Meanwhile, her husband Loukas has troubles of his own. Struggling with dreams and desires he doesn’t understand, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to an Englishman, a newcomer to the island. In a village wreathed in superstition, Despo and Loukas must protect themselves and their unborn child from ominous forces at play.

Publisher: Fairlight Books
ISBN: 9781914148057

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“A story of illicit passion wrapped in a Cypriot folk tale, A Good Year is spellbinding from start to finish, and confirms Polis Loizou as one of our boldest young writers. Evocative and resonant beyond its final page.”

Dan Coxon, author of Only The Broken Remain and editor of This Dreaming Isle
“With beautifully paced, rich prose, Loizou conjures the heady sights, sounds and smells of Cyprus, while exposing the horror that resides in her superstitions and traditions.”

Lucie McKnight Hardy, author of Water Shall Refuse Them
“Intense and harrowing, A Good Year is a beautifully crafted meditation on the light and shade of the human psyche in which Loizou explores one of the darkest of human fears-that of being ourselves.”

Justin David, author of The Pharmacist
Frequently shot through with a consistently believable sense of dread and terror… a haunting story about subjectivity and the ways in which fear and superstition affect our perception of events…

The Publishing Post

Photos by Hannah St George. From an event about A Good Year with Phoenix Alexander at Waterstones Gower Street, May 2022.

A Good Year

“A story of illicit passion wrapped in a Cypriot folk tale, A Good Year is spellbinding from start to finish, and confirms Polis Loizou as one of our boldest young writers. Evocative and resonant beyond its final page.”

“With beautifully paced, rich prose, Loizou conjures the heady sights, sounds and smells of Cyprus, while exposing the horror that resides in her superstitions and traditions.”

“Intense and harrowing, A Good Year is a beautifully crafted meditation on the light and shade of the human psyche in which Loizou explores one of the darkest of human fears-that of being ourselves.”

Frequently shot through with a consistently believable sense of dread and terror… a haunting story about subjectivity and the ways in which fear and superstition affect our perception of events…

The Way It Breaks