Sentenced to Love

The story revolves around John, a Greek Cypriot boy and Pem, a Turkish Cypriot girl. John and Pem met at university in the 1970s and fell in love. But both youngsters’ lives were overshadowed by their families’ past history. John’s great uncle, in his youth, was murdered by Turkish Cypriots for having a relationship with a Turkish Cypriot girl that he fell passionately in love with. Pem’s father had a deep-seated hostility towards Greek Cypriots, following a massacre of Turkish Cypriots in his village of Tochni in one of Cyprus’ ethnic conflicts.
Family pressure on Pem brought her to breaking point and she made the decision to leave John, in spite of her deep love for him. Before leaving him, she contrived to get pregnant by him. The baby would be her eternal connection with John. Pem married a mainland Turk who believed the child, Joanna was his.
It took John many years to come to terms with Pem leaving him. He dabbled in drink, drugs and promiscuity. He eventually emigrates, unsuccessfully, to South Africa but found that he could not live under a bigoted apartheid system. He finally finds love again in England with Kelly, a nurse. John follows a career as a teacher and writer. He achieves peace and stability in his life. Moderate success with his two novels persuades him to give up teaching and follow a career as a writer.
John’s life takes another turn when he is invited to a meeting to market his books. He turns up to the meeting to discover that the invitation came from Pem, who is one of the owners of the marketing company. This was Pem’s way to see John again and reveal her twenty-five-year-old secret. Pem had an acrimonious split with her husband and wanted to let John know that he had a daughter.
John felt an instant bond and love for his daughter Joanna but resented Pem for what she’d done. As the real story about the circumstances that led Pem to leave him twenty-five years earlier unfolded, John found himself falling in love again with Pem. He was tormented between his love for two women but was determined to stay loyal to Kelly. But an unexpected discovery that Pem had cancer had thrown all his emotions and plans into turmoil. That all-consuming love he felt for Pem as a young man had returned, he knew he could not live without her.