The Progenitors

Announcing a masterpiece of Contemporary Cyprus Literature that is little known in Turkish, Sofronis Sofroniu weaves real and imaginary characters together in the 2015 State Literary Award-winning novel The Progenitors, in a plot that spans a wide time period spreading from the 21st to the 16th centuries, from the villages of Cyprus to the streets of Amsterdam and New York.

In pursuit of a breathtaking mysterious plot, the reader turns into a spatial and temporal traveler; in this journey, history and literature are inextricably intertwined. Space, character and anonymous crowds of the near and far past are trying to breathe and unravel the knot of a dark mystery together.

On the fringes of fiction and history, countless characters examine the ancient question of whether their past, present, and future are determined by their own will or by deeper external forces. While experiencing the infiltration of poetry, music and painting into every element of the narrative, the reader follows a murder that will change the course of the history of Cyprus and the region.

“Anyone who likes The Name of the Rose or Angels and Demons should definitely read First Progenitors, which does a masterful job in blending fiction and story, mystery, real events, and adventure in the Mediterranean fashion.”