I have just finished reading this book after reading the reviews about it on the forum and must admit I really enjoyed it. It has romance, mystery and intrigue in it. At times I felt like I could just imagine Karima standing singing waiting for her friend and eventual lover to come and the happiness she felt albeit for a very short time, but the writer certainly knows how to keep the reader entertained and I would recommend this to anyone.
I'm now on the hunt for another good book set in Egypt!
Nadia's Song ~ Soheir Khashoggi
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HEPZIBAH
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[face=Comic Sans MS]Have you read Whispers in the Sand by Barbara Erskine? Very definately mystery and intrigue and a very good read. I've written about it before either here or on Luxor4U.
I was reading another forum earlier and someone had recommended:[/face]
Ahdaf Soueif - "Map of Love"
description courtesy of Amazon
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.
In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
description courtesy of Amazon
The book begins in London in 1979, with Asya reflecting back on events in Cairo more than a decade before. It's May, 1967: Asya, studying for University, is in the grip of "exam fever"; on the stage of international politics, war is about to break out between Israel and Egypt. Soueif presents that war in brief, journalistic "scenes" that run alongside her exploration of Asya's coming-of-age as a woman in modern Egypt. For Asya, education, love, sexuality and marriage are bound up with, and touched by, the violent conflicts between Egypt and Israel--as well as the seductions, and disappointments, of Europe. Studying for her doctorate in literature at an English University, Asya confronts the difficulty of her marriage to Saif--a man she loves but has never been able to make love to, who is never with her but finds her demands on his time "intolerable". The scenes between husband and wife are among the most memorable, and painful, in the book: in particular, Saif's furious shock at his wife's (eventual) infidelity: "I expected my wife to be loyal. I expected my wife to have some sense of honour. I expected ..."
Exploring the gulf between them through that other gulf between East and West, Soueif offers a remarkable reflection on the recent history of Egypt and England through the life of a woman who won't give up on her question: "Why does it have to be like this?" --Vicky Lebeau
Product Description
This is a love story, a story about growing up, a story about what its like to be a women (East and West), a story about the history of the post-imperial Middle East during the last 30 years or so, perplexed and bloody years, and a story about home.
[face=Comic Sans MS]Having just looked these up on Amzon, my eye was drawn to other books too, many based in or linked to Egypt. Looks like my reading list just got longer again![/face]
I was reading another forum earlier and someone had recommended:[/face]
Ahdaf Soueif - "Map of Love"
description courtesy of Amazon
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.
In the Eye of the Sun by Ahdaf Soueif
description courtesy of Amazon
The book begins in London in 1979, with Asya reflecting back on events in Cairo more than a decade before. It's May, 1967: Asya, studying for University, is in the grip of "exam fever"; on the stage of international politics, war is about to break out between Israel and Egypt. Soueif presents that war in brief, journalistic "scenes" that run alongside her exploration of Asya's coming-of-age as a woman in modern Egypt. For Asya, education, love, sexuality and marriage are bound up with, and touched by, the violent conflicts between Egypt and Israel--as well as the seductions, and disappointments, of Europe. Studying for her doctorate in literature at an English University, Asya confronts the difficulty of her marriage to Saif--a man she loves but has never been able to make love to, who is never with her but finds her demands on his time "intolerable". The scenes between husband and wife are among the most memorable, and painful, in the book: in particular, Saif's furious shock at his wife's (eventual) infidelity: "I expected my wife to be loyal. I expected my wife to have some sense of honour. I expected ..."
Exploring the gulf between them through that other gulf between East and West, Soueif offers a remarkable reflection on the recent history of Egypt and England through the life of a woman who won't give up on her question: "Why does it have to be like this?" --Vicky Lebeau
Product Description
This is a love story, a story about growing up, a story about what its like to be a women (East and West), a story about the history of the post-imperial Middle East during the last 30 years or so, perplexed and bloody years, and a story about home.
[face=Comic Sans MS]Having just looked these up on Amzon, my eye was drawn to other books too, many based in or linked to Egypt. Looks like my reading list just got longer again![/face]
Experience is not what happens to you;
it is what you do with what happens to you.
-Aldous Huxley
Yes Ive read Whispers in the Sand which was really good, but I too went onto amazon last night and have ended up ordering Cairo Trilogy, The Yacoubian Building, and The Hippopotamus Pool another one of the Ameila Peabody series. Since hearing about this series, I have read 8 or is it nine!
The books Im now waiting for should kep me amused for a while although the ones you mention also sound good ~
The books Im now waiting for should kep me amused for a while although the ones you mention also sound good ~
A day without laughter is a day wasted 
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Winged Isis
- Top Member
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While lurking in one of my favourite second-hand bookstores when too early for a dinner date, I found "Lovers On the Nile" by Richard Hall (author of a biography of Stanley), 1980, Quartet Books.
It is a true story of a Victorian era couple who were explorers in search of the source of the Nile. They were ranked with Livingstone, Burton and Speke and lionized by society for their exploits. It all began when he bought her at a slave auction...!
Am only halfway but enjoying it very much.
It is a true story of a Victorian era couple who were explorers in search of the source of the Nile. They were ranked with Livingstone, Burton and Speke and lionized by society for their exploits. It all began when he bought her at a slave auction...!
Am only halfway but enjoying it very much.
Carpe diem! 
I just started 'Samir and Samira' last night and this looks to be a goodun
It's by Sika Shakib.
an excerpt
Daria knows now it was her duty to pull a son from her body as her husbands first child.......I have lost my worth............she knows men who have denied a daughter,,,,,even taken a second wife so that they will give him a son........a man is only a real man when he has fathered a son. Daria knew of women who gave husbands, daughters to have their teeth knocked out by the husband. The wives were considered no longer women. She asked the old women why their teeth were gone. Theyreplied because a wife who cannot be used as a woman is only good for one thing to please her husband and teeth get in the way when she is pleasuring him....Daria wept
This is a story set in Afghanistan where a husband forces the wife to reveal the girl child as a son and dresses him accordingly. The secret in the end has to come out ..............
It's by Sika Shakib.
an excerpt
Daria knows now it was her duty to pull a son from her body as her husbands first child.......I have lost my worth............she knows men who have denied a daughter,,,,,even taken a second wife so that they will give him a son........a man is only a real man when he has fathered a son. Daria knew of women who gave husbands, daughters to have their teeth knocked out by the husband. The wives were considered no longer women. She asked the old women why their teeth were gone. Theyreplied because a wife who cannot be used as a woman is only good for one thing to please her husband and teeth get in the way when she is pleasuring him....Daria wept
This is a story set in Afghanistan where a husband forces the wife to reveal the girl child as a son and dresses him accordingly. The secret in the end has to come out ..............
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