Description
A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic comes into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel, site of the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, she meets Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell. With her plainspoken American opinions, she becomes a sounding board for these historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. While neither a pawn or a participant at the conference, she is drawn into the geopolitical intrigue surrounding the conference.
Local notes
Historical fiction - 372p.
Egypt 1921 British and other interests vie for influence and power in the Middle East. An american woman recovering from loss of family finds herself amongst political heavyweights charting the course of history. Her interactions with Churchill and Lawrence are set at a very personal level whilst she has an affair with a charming German spy. A simple, stylish story, enjoyable and well written.
Egypt 1921 British and other interests vie for influence and power in the Middle East. An american woman recovering from loss of family finds herself amongst political heavyweights charting the course of history. Her interactions with Churchill and Lawrence are set at a very personal level whilst she has an affair with a charming German spy. A simple, stylish story, enjoyable and well written.
Publication
Black Swan (2009), Paperback, 384 pages
Subjects
Original publication date
2008
Physical description
384 p.; 7.72 inches
ISBN
0552774855 / 9780552774857