The book's twenty essays describe what it was like growing up as an outsider in Cyprus during the difficult years of the EOKA uprising against British colonial rule. Born in the US, Harry A. Mavromatis moved to Cyprus with his parents and spent his adolescence on the island. LOST EDENS provides informative, insightful biographies of several of the island's important personalities, including Archbishop Makarios, as well as of some of the less prominent people the author met and interacted with while there. The volume concludes with perceptive comments about the causes of the Cyprus conflict and the author's hopes for the future.