About Face

When a young Muslim doctor leaves war-torn Cyprus to study pediatric medicine in Chicago, she falls in love with a Jewish colleague. But before she can tell him the news of her pregnancy, they're attacked by masked gunmen who have stormed the restaurant in which they're having dinner. Knowing that honor killings are a real threat and terrified that her male relatives will discover her pregnancy, she leaves her wounded boyfriend and takes off for Wisconsin in search of safety. But in this vast and unknown country, she finds herself constantly looking over her shoulder—and when her uncle sends an assassin to find her, the possibility of survival becomes slimmer than ever.

The island of Cyprus is a divided country in the eastern Mediterranean That gained its independence from Great Britain in 1960. Since 1974 he north part of the island is occupied by Turkey and the people there are Muslim. The southern part is still an independent sovereign country member of the EU and the United Nations, most people in the southern part are Christian Greek Orthodox. Many people from both the north and the south leave the country to further their studies abroad. A 23 year old Muslim doctor leaves her family in Cyprus and comes to the USA on a scholarship to study pediatrics with the intention to go back home to help children. She has never travelled beyond Turkey where she had gone to medical school. In the US she meets a Jewish doctor and falls in love. She finds herself pregnant and decides to tell him the happy news over dinner at a restaurant they had gone to dinner many times. However before she can tell him the news, two masked men enter the restaurant and open fire. Her boyfriend is seriously wounded but she manages to escape unharmed. She finds herself lost in a vast unknown country trying to survive. Where should she go to hide? She doesn't know more than a few people at the hospital she works. While her boyfriend is fighting for his life in the operating room, she decides to leave her known surroundings of her hospital in Chicago and tries to find a nurse friend in Wisconsin. Honor killing is a serious thread from her father and her uncle. She also fears the people at her mosque in Chicago may be after her too. She has few friends and she doesn't want to put them in danger. Her fears escalate when she finds out her brother and then her father have come to the United States, looking to take her back home. Tension rises further when her uncle hires an assassin to go after her too.

Dr George Andreas was born on the island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. In 1974, shortly after the invasion of Cyprus and the loss of his Greek family's lands to the Turks, he left for Chicago, where he had accepted a surgical residency. After 20 years of practicing Plastic Surgery in the U.S., he returned to Cyprus to continue his work. Now retired, he lives with his wife in South Florida.