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. -- (from amazon.co.uk)

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Ooops - never journal this last month. Thanks Kinedi!

It took me a few months to get through this, but I never had the urge to give up. I just knew I needed to take my time. The story is complex and detailed, involving both modern politics and the history of Egypt in the nineteenth century. I studied a little of the latter about 17 years ago and it did help me understand things in a vague sort of way, but even so I admit to skim-reading some of those bits about Urabi, etc.

The real beauty of the novel is Anna's romance and later marriage with Sharif Pasha. This was, I admit, seriously unrealistic at times, but I could forgive that. The author's point was about the infiltration of political tensions into even the most perfect of relationships, and that was well drawn.

To be released at the Old Gang meetup.

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