The Heart Grown Bitter: A Chronicle of Cypriot War Refugees

In August 1974 most of the inhabitants of Argaki, a prosperous Cypriot village, fled from their homes in the face of an advancing army. In a matter of days they had become war refugees. This book is an account of their experiences before, during and after their flight from their village. Peter Loizos had made an anthropological study of Argaki before 1974 and is also related to some of its families. This has enabled him to combine the methods and approaches of an anthropologist with the personal insight of a family member and his account of the villagers' experiences is moving, vivid and sympathetic. No anthropologist has ever previously recorded so poignantly the experiences of the victims of war; this compassionate and sensitive book will be of compelling interest to all readers concerned about the aftermath of war and the problems of refugees.