“You are not Cypriot.” But I tell them I am. Cyprus is all I have ever known.

What is a Cypriot? Too often the story told of Cyprus makes the island nation seem dully monocultural, or bicultural at best.

Yet the life stories Annetta Benzar has collected and retold here celebrate a country that is full of diversity, and in which there is a tale from a different part of the world around every corner.

In these pages you will read stories of blood, stories of borders and border-crossings, stories of brides, of fathers, footballers, fear and fate, told by an eclectic cast connected to countries as separate as the United States, the Philippines, the Congo or the Crimea.

As they reflect on the sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes inspiring and sometimes funny experience of living in Cyprus, Annetta Benzar, herself a Cypriot citizen of Belarussian origin, weaves the stories together to form a portrait of a dynamic and fascinating country.