Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love is a massive family saga, a story that draws its readers into two moments in the complex, and troubled, history of modern Egypt. The story begins in New York, in 1997: Isabel Parkman discovers an old trunk full of documents--some in English, some in Arabic--in her dying mother's apartment. Omar-al- Ghamrawi, a man with whom she is falling in love, directs her to his sister, Amal, in Cairo. Together the two women begin to uncover the stories embedded in the journal of Lady Anna Winterbourne (who travels to Egypt in 1900 and falls in love with Sharif Pasha al- Barudi, an Egyptian Nationalist) and the unsuspected connections between their own families. British colonialism, Egyptian nationalism, the clash of cultures in the Middle East in 1900 and the present day: the different narratives of The Map of Love weave a subtle, and reflective, tale of love across culture and conflict--the ways in which relations between individuals may (or may not) make the difference. "I am in an English autumn in 1897 and Anna's troubled heart lies open before me": Amal's response to Anna Winterbourne's journal could be a description of how to read this fascinating book, its invitation to use words as a means to travel through time, space and identity. --Vicky Lebeau --

An understanding of middle eastern history/politics over the last 150 years or so certainly helps. Found my energy petering at the end, but the love story between Anna and Sharif is lovely

Caught from Nordie at BCIE meetup at Harbour Master in Dublin on the 21st.

RELEASE NOTES:

To be released at BCIE meetup in The Westmoreland Pub

Picked up at bcie november meeting.

Oops, read this in July and forgot to journal it. I don't know what to say about it now!

RELEASE NOTES:

Will leave somewhere in the pub at lunch time.