Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad: The True Story of an Unlikely Friendship by May Witwit

Jun 13, 2013 okyrhoe added it

Shelves: bookcrossing, iraq, united-kingdom

As a book based on email exchanges it is quite readable. There is a natural evolution in the narrative. It opens with formal messages between two strangers and gradually leads to a confiding, solid friendship.
Within that developing relationship, the communication becomes more complex, as each side slowly reveals more about themselves, the roles they have in life, their gripes, their fears. And soon, it is what they share, have in common with each other, that determines their continuing communic...more As a book based on email exchanges it is quite readable. There is a natural evolution in the narrative. It opens with formal messages between two strangers and gradually leads to a confiding, solid friendship.
Within that developing relationship, the communication becomes more complex, as each side slowly reveals more about themselves, the roles they have in life, their gripes, their fears. And soon, it is what they share, have in common with each other, that determines their continuing communication. Overall what keeps the friendship going is a shared sense of feminine bonding. Yes, there may be at times too much talk about food, weight gain, chores, etc. but that's what they have in common, the minutiae of juggling work with the demands of housekeeping.
In the email exchanges it's May who is the most naturally expressive, generous with female-bonding endearments from early on (Bumbo Bee, lovely Bee...). I got the impression that Bee was somewhat hesitant at first, and distrustful of this display of emotion. Over time though Bee lets herself go, and soon they are calling each other big and little sisters. These expressions of filialtiy are what shapes and cements their friendship.
Of the two, it is May who is the most complex/interesing individual - she is rich with stories about her life, her experiences, and general information about Iraq - but it's Bee who is the core of the narrative, the character who actually evolves and is transformed by the email exchanges and the friendship.
There are basically two processes of involvment for the reader: one, the reading of the email correspondence between two women, and two, the reading of how Bee is reading/understanding/interpreting May's messages.
There are moments of tension when the two can't seem to communicate on the same level, despite their earnest effort at understanding one another. There were times when I wanted to tell Bee, you just don't get it, do you!* May herself was really patient. Maybe her teaching experience helped; at times Bee seemed no different from the dumbstruck female Baghdad university students.

* Even though May and Ali were both disinherited by their families for what (to us) seems like an overblown reaction to the age difference & the religious incompatibility in their marriage, the concept of filiality in Arab society is a very strong bond. They were cast out not for what they did per se, but for what & how their "scandalous" marriage reflected upon the rest of the family's reputation and honor, and the couple's apparent lack of consideration to the rest of the family over this matter.
For May to address Bee as her sister, that was no light fancy; it was very serious indeed. And it was something I sensed that Bee mostly failed to comprehend. (less)

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Feb 19, 2012 Valerie Hedges rated it 5 of 5 stars

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit
The story we didn’t hear in the news bulletins from Iraq, of daily life and survival, and one woman’s journey to safety in the UK helped by her friend….
May Witwit is an Iraqi Academic and Lecturer of English, an expert in Chaucer and Jane Austen. Educated in the UK, where on her arrival she barely spoke English, she had returned to Iraq still in her teens and lived through Sanctions, Invasion and war.
Bee is a BBC World Service jo...more Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad by Bee Rowlatt and May Witwit
The story we didn’t hear in the news bulletins from Iraq, of daily life and survival, and one woman’s journey to safety in the UK helped by her friend….
May Witwit is an Iraqi Academic and Lecturer of English, an expert in Chaucer and Jane Austen. Educated in the UK, where on her arrival she barely spoke English, she had returned to Iraq still in her teens and lived through Sanctions, Invasion and war.
Bee is a BBC World Service journalist and mum living in London. She made contact with May, when looking for Iraqis who spoke English and could tell of how daily life was in Iraq. A friendship grew which gave May the chance to be rescued and Bee the chance to give the ultimate gift of friendship…. to save the life of her friend
While the West continues to be heavily involved in military action in the Middle East, and the lessons of Iraq is a subject for reflection, the book Talking about Jane Austen in Baghdad is a testament to what we should seriously consider and never forget before action is taken…the huge effect on the lives of ordinary civilians.
I myself owe a huge debt to Bee, as I was Mays neighbour and went to school with her when she lived in London…

It isn’t often that two 51 year old women who were neighbours and school friends aged 11, meet up again in London on a sunny May afternoon after almost 40 years, and when one asks the other “What have you been doing, what has happened to you…?” She knows that it is a daft question really and the answer is too harrowing to imagine for the answer lies in the reply “Read my book!”

Without the story of this friendship as told in the book, through emails Bee and May sent to each other, that meeting would quite likely have never taken place…

This book made me smile at the sheer power of female friendship but it also made me cry, or perhaps especially me because May is my childhood friend and reading the book was how I had to catch up with her life since I last saw her...reading it puts lots of daily life problems into a different perspective.(less)

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May 31, 2011 Hannah added it

Shelves: reviewed

As you can imagine, this book held special attraction for me (I love Jane Austen AND I'm in Baghdad!). The book is written in the form of emails between Bee Rowlatt, a employee with BBC and May Witwit, an Iraqi citizen. (Epistolary books are AWESOME!)

The book was light on Jane Austen and heavy on May & Bee's opinions on the war. Despite that, I found both women compelling. I giggled at Bee's trials of raising three young daughters and sympathized with May over the frequent sandstorms. May's...more

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Nov 06, 2010 Lauren Montgomery rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 26-books-while-i-am-26

I really enjoyed hearing what the Iraqi woman had to say--it's the first real account from an Iraqi academic I've heard. The conditions they lived in sound appalling and I really had no idea what life in Iraq was like for the educated middle class. I did find it hypocritical that she blamed the Americans and claimed Saddam wasn't that bad despite his murdering millions of his own countrymen, but I can see how on the ground it seems that way.

What really took away from the book were the letters wr...more

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Dec 04, 2011 Zain rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned

The book's title is slightly misleading, as there is barely any talk of Jane Austen or literature for that matter. It contains nothing but a three year long exchange of emails between two women in opposite ends of the world, one an Iraqi English literature professor (May) in Baghdad and the other (Bee) a journalist with the BBC in London. It seemed dull at first, and as my sister put it when she read the book, intrusive, as though you were violating the women's privacy by reading their personal...more The book's title is slightly misleading, as there is barely any talk of Jane Austen or literature for that matter. It contains nothing but a three year long exchange of emails between two women in opposite ends of the world, one an Iraqi English literature professor (May) in Baghdad and the other (Bee) a journalist with the BBC in London. It seemed dull at first, and as my sister put it when she read the book, intrusive, as though you were violating the women's privacy by reading their personal emails.
But then you get caught into their lives by witnessing the blossoming of a true friendship and the bond that develops between them and you're struck by the stark contrast of their lives. In almost every email, May talks about death, insecurity and instability in the city but never fails to add words of love to her 'sister' (Bee) and her 'nieces' (Bee's daughters) and her longing to see them. Bee, on the other hand, talks about the joys and trials of motherhood, her work and her husband while asking probing questions as to life in Baghdad before and after the US invasion, May's work and her students, her husband's family and Islam, while at the same time offering comforting and compassionate words to ease May's troubles. What I liked a lot about the book is that May answers Bee's questions intelligently and honestly, helping dissipate any stereotypes the reader may have about Islam, by firmly establishing the fact that Islam and tribal law, (the latter which governs most regions in Iraq) are completely separate of each other, even though most people consider them to be synonymous.

You're also struck by the strength of the Iraqi people who having been subject to so much adversity for the past 30 years, still stay rooted in their faith, traditions and culture despite the curfews, bombs and bullets.

In the face of May's trials, Bee's complaints of her daughter's 'weeing' may seem trivial but I think it is the normalcy of her friend's emails that strikes a chord with her, helping her to get through her daily routine. Similarly, the sadness of some of May's emails touches Bee and she realizes how small her afflictions are in comparison and attempts to do everything she can to get May and her husband out of Iraq.

I would have loved to read more about May's classes in the university, but all in all a good read, if you can bear to read May's horrifying (some eye-witness) accounts of the terror reigning in Baghdad. You really feel for the civilians living there stuck in the inferno and wonder how people can be so merciless to their fellow human beings, for no reason whatsoever except for a difference in faith or political opinion.(less)

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Jun 08, 2010 Ali rated it 4 of 5 stars

A sign of the modern world perhaps that the book of letters has become the book of emails. The existence of this book is entirely due to Bee Rowlatt's plan to get May and her husband out of Iraq. Considering the vast differences between these two women and their lives, it is touching just how close they became - the friendship which developed between the two families and the things that Bee and her husband Justin did to help May and Ali is quite an inspirational story. During the course of these...more

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Feb 27, 2010 Ellen rated it 4 of 5 stars

It's a book of emails between a British BBC journalist and an Iraqi university lecturer. Rowlatt, the journalist, had contacted Witwit about a story, and the two became good friends. Witwit, born in Iran, actually had lived in England and Scotland as a child, but her family returned to Iran when she was a teenager. And now, years later, Witwit is trying to survive in war-torn Iraq with a toppled government, American soldiers raiding her house, her Sunni husband under threat from local Shiites et...more

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Apr 06, 2011 Jennifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-loan, non-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. How could I not like this book when its publication was the key to what I hope has been a happy (or happier) ending for May and Ali?

I marvelled at the way this must surely have been carefully edited, leaving in some pretty raw but 'petty' stuff. I don't honestly think that either of these two women would become *my* bosom pals in real life or in emails, but it showed how unlikely friendships can form simply through people making the effort to communicate.

I've seen reviews criticising Bee moaning...more

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Mar 12, 2013 Jackie rated it 4 of 5 stars

As a fan of books that take place in the Middle East, I was excited to read this book. When I first started reading the book, I did not know what to expect other than an email exchange between two women, one British and the other Iraqi. The more I read this book, the more I realized how lucky I am have the life I have. Although I am not a mother, my own problems are more like Bee's. When trouble occurs in my life, it has to do with being upset at someone for a short time or feeling stressed due...more

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Jan 25, 2010 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars

I really really loved this book! Bee is an English journalist working for the BBC World Service and May is an Iraqi university lecturer. Bee first contacted May to ask if she would give an interview about living conditions in Baghdad since the invasion of the US forces.
They quickly became friends and this book is their collection of emails - back and forth, starting in January 2005 until October 2008.
Bee is a mother of two daughters, pregnant with her third, living and working in London. She is...more I really really loved this book! Bee is an English journalist working for the BBC World Service and May is an Iraqi university lecturer. Bee first contacted May to ask if she would give an interview about living conditions in Baghdad since the invasion of the US forces.
They quickly became friends and this book is their collection of emails - back and forth, starting in January 2005 until October 2008.
Bee is a mother of two daughters, pregnant with her third, living and working in London. She is married to Justin and lives a fairly comfortable life, with lots of holidays, friends and parties. Meanwhile, May is coping with life in occupied Baghdad. Married to her second husband and alienated from his family due to religious beliefs. Coping with days with no electricity, bombs, shootings, murders, house searches, no fuel, no freedom and no hope.
The contrast between the two women's lives is immense - yet they become firm friends, calling each other 'sister' and able to talk about anything at all.
May and her husband Ali are desperate to leave Iraq, they want to start a new life together, away from war.
Over the course of the three years of correspondence we follow their battle with authority to gain visas and enough money to see their dream through. Every obstacle imaginable is put in their way. There are times when both women become very despondent and depressed, but there are also times of laughter and joy.
This is a wonderfully well put together book. In e-mail form, honest and no holds barred. It is hard to imagine just what difference the US invasion of Iraq made to the ordinary people living there. May talks about life under the regime of Saddam and how it was often not so bad, and how people have suffered far more since the invasion. She is not condoning Saddam's regime, but life was easier and not so dangerous.
The contrast of Bee's busy London life, bringing up small children whilst working in stressful job is often a welcome distraction from the horrors of life in Baghdad.
This is the true story of a most unlikely friendship, emotional, touching, funny - a wonderful read that I enjoyed very much.(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Helen Barr rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book shows the developing friendship of two women, May and Bee, through their emails. I particularly liked the emails of May, the English professor in Baghdad. Her accounts of everyday experiences of the war/wars in Iraq are informative and moving. Bee, a mother and journalist in England also writes very well, but, sometimes sounds a little petty (maybe by comparison). The women decided to publish their email correspondence as part of a plan to raise money to help May leave the danger of Ba...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

Amazing real life story with a very happy ending!

This story is documented in email exchange format and unfolds the growing friendship between a BBC world service journalist and an iraqi academic living in Baghdad during the Iraq war.

The original intent of the journalist was to gain an insight into the lives of ordinary Iraqi's who had been blighted by the invasion and ensuing occupation. I love how this original plan developed into a very strong and unlikely friendship which saw both women wor...more

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Dec 26, 2010 Camilla rated it 5 of 5 stars

Questo libro è davvero un piccolo capolavoro 'non voluto'. Non era infatti in programma che le mail scambiate tra le due autrici fossero pubblicate. E' decisamente strano com'è iniziata questa spettacolare amicizia speciale ed il lettore vede sotto i suoi occhi come si è sviluppata tramite centinaia di mail.
Il libro è particolare con la sua struttura: non vi è altro se non le mail di Bee e May. La prima è una giornalista inglese le cui lettere un po' mi davano fastidio, con la loro aria da snob...more

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Mar 08, 2012 Sara Sg rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, politics, middle-east

It was great to have some first hand insight into the life of Iraq after the war. I enjoyed the idea of this unlikely friendship and how it turned out to be beneficial for both May and for Iraq, in having its voice heard. A promotional story, indeed. My complaint however, was that it was too long for what it delivered. A lot of the emails --after a certain point in the story-- lost their charm and felt tedious and uninteresting. Perhaps they meant to preserve and deliver the friendship in its or...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Deborah Ideiosepius rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: non-fiction

I really liked this book. It was not a fast read because it was letters back and forth, which breaks up the reading speed and which also occasional leaves you back reading to figure out whose email you are currently reading. That said, I loved the story of the unlikely electronic friendship across the world and it was fascinating to see Baghdad through the eyes of someone living there but yearning to escape the madness.

[spoilers]I found the ending especially brilliant; for a while I had been won...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

When I started reading I was surprised to find that the entire book is a compilation of emails and I found this style really hard to read at first.

It's strange, you find yourself evaluating the authenticity of these characters and deciding whether their friendship is realistic, until you remind yourself that they ARE real people and these are REAL emails. The juxtaposition between their lives makes for an interesting read and certainly gives you perspective. The insight into life in war torn Bag...more

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Dec 20, 2011 Sam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography, england, middle-east, non-fiction, war

Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is a true story told in a collection of emails exchanged between two women, Bee and May. Bee is a Londoner who needs to find an English-speaking Iraqi to interview for her job with the BBC world service. After she interviews May, a university professor from Baghdad, the two remain in contact and become close friends. Bee shares details about life in London and her family and May responds with the brutality and horror of the Iraq invasion. As things become wor...more Talking About Jane Austen in Baghdad is a true story told in a collection of emails exchanged between two women, Bee and May. Bee is a Londoner who needs to find an English-speaking Iraqi to interview for her job with the BBC world service. After she interviews May, a university professor from Baghdad, the two remain in contact and become close friends. Bee shares details about life in London and her family and May responds with the brutality and horror of the Iraq invasion. As things become worse for May, Bee does everything she can to try to help her escape the country for good.

I enjoyed this book at first. It was interesting reading the actual emails the two women shared as their friendship developed and progressed. These initial emails contained lots of information about family history, everyday life and current events - it was a good way to get to know the two women. But as the book continued I found myself getting irritated with the fact that every single email ever written between them had been included. This made things very repetitive at times, especially when May is trying several ways to obtain a visa for the UK and in my opinion, a sensitive editor could have avoided this problem completely. Some emails could have been cut without the overall effect of the book being diminished.

I also found myself getting a bit annoyed with the English woman, Bee. She often writes cheerful emails full of family news in an attempt to cheer up May, but this does at times come across as insensitive. Bee obviously comes from a well-off family and her constant chat about weeks away, holidays and complaining about having to train a new au-pair whilst May is being shot at in the street seems a bit tactless. At times she is also very blunt with May, and I cringed whilst reading the sections where Bee tells May in no uncertain terms that she won't financially support her when she arrives in England.

May's emails, on the other hand, perfectly convey how hopeless and frustrated she feels with the situation in her country. During the periods where her and her husband are basically prisoners in their own home due to the danger, I really empathised with their depression and loneliness. I was rooting for May throughout the whole book and did become emotionally invested in her. This was the key strength of the book and I felt it would have been improved by focusing less on Bee and more on May, rather than including every single email written between them.(less)

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Jul 28, 2011 Maria Grazia rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: austen-inspired, italian-books, read-in-2011

Honestly , I bought this book thinking there would be much more Austen in it. In fact, there was very little. However, I’m not disappointed, I liked it a lot all the same. More than liked it, loved it! What is this book about? It is an exchange of e-mail messages (from January 2005 to October 2008) between two very different women who, little by little, develop a close friendship based on a strong feeling of sympathy.
May teaches English Literature at a university in Baghdad, to a class of girls...more
Honestly , I bought this book thinking there would be much more Austen in it. In fact, there was very little. However, I’m not disappointed, I liked it a lot all the same. More than liked it, loved it! What is this book about? It is an exchange of e-mail messages (from January 2005 to October 2008) between two very different women who, little by little, develop a close friendship based on a strong feeling of sympathy.
May teaches English Literature at a university in Baghdad, to a class of girls only and, even though nothing could be farther from the reality surrounding them, she leaves her house every day to talk to them about Jane Austen. Old times’ skirmishes vs real war.
At the same time, May tries to lead an ordinary life, going shopping or to the hairdresser’s, challenging the possibility of a bomb explosion each time. She has to cope with on and off electrical power supply, black market and the government’s repression against intellectuals like her, or different ethnic groups like her husband’s.
Bee is a journalist living in London and her challenge is to run her life between her three little daughters and her work at BBC World, with a globetrotter as a husband.
May and Bee couldn’t be more different. Culture, religion, kilometers separate them. Hence, when they get into contact through e-mail, because Bee wants an interview with May, they become friends. They tell each other about their routines and May’s messages become a sort of diary of the life in today’s troubled Iraq. A schizophrenic country where girls put on their make-up and unveil or untie their hair as soon as they get to class and then cover and compose themselves again before going back home , or where a daughter can still be rejected by her family for marrying a younger man of an inferior rank. Yet a country in which Jane Austen is not so impossible to read and understand. Jane Austen or Dickens but it is not an easy task to read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne with them. What those girls could never be able to understand is the chance to be freed and live in real democracy.
After the initial lightness , May’s messages become more and more dripping of fear. For instance, “We were in Dorset for 10 days and had loads of people coming, so I thought it would be exhausting,” Bee Rowlatt writes. “Just as I was making tea and preparing breakfast a bomb exploded outside,” May Witwit answers.
A race against time starts in order to save May and her husband Alì. Bee feels guilty when she sends May her tales about balancing a career with bringing up young daughters , about the stress of a free woman coping with her little troubles or her jealousy towards her own husband’s freedom to focus on his career . No bloodsheds, no bombs, no violence, no poverty . She feels guilty but to May those stories are both escape and hope. She dreams of joining Bee in England one day and starting all over with a different life in a different country. So Bee starts working and fighting for her friend, so that May’s dream may come true.
May Witwit lives in England with her husbands now.

(Read my complete review at http://bit.ly/oIJ5XI )(less)

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Nov 03, 2011 Nourhan rated it 1 of 5 stars

Reading that book makes me discover how is life in Baghdad after the invasion, it made me discover real new things which amazed me that I cant imagine that it is happening in Iraq.
The book talks about an Iraqi english lecturer in Baghdad in her 40s and how she is suffering from life in Baghdad, Each day people are killed without any reason whether they have political interests or not. Her husband is unemployed as he is a Sunni which is hard to find a good job in Baghdad.
It shows the life in Bagh...more

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Jun 22, 2010 Suzanne Moore rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: east-texas-library-friends, summer-challenge-picks

Bee, a journalist from the UK, and May, a professor in Iraq, begin an email friendship that lasts several years. Quite soon in the correspondence, they begin to brainstorm ways to get May and her husband Ali out of the country. Their lives are drastically different, and May relies on Bee’s everyday normalcy to get through the chaotic life she must endure. I enjoyed reading about the friendship between Bee and May. I also learned a lot about the suffering in Iraq, and the desperate need for peace...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Funny, shocking and sensitively written, this beautiful account of an unlikely friendship between two women was a brilliant read. It took me right into Bagdad's war zone and lightened the situation with accounts of life in London bringing up toddlers.
Bee is a BBC journalist, and - disclosure time - one of my very best friends in the whole wide world. Her pairing up with May demonstrates the connection that women from vastly different backgrounds and lives can have.

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Oct 16, 2011 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading of these two very different women's lives and yet the fundamentals that are important are still the same despite circumstance. I found reading of the day-to-day trials of wartorn Iraq confronting and know I can't even begin to understand living in that environment. Sustained stress and anxiety would be so tough. At times I found Bee a little bit whiney but hey, I would be too with 3 young children and a high pressured job!

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Nov 05, 2011 Martine Peacock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having heard the Radio 4 production of this story, I sought it out in the library. My feelings towards the book are ambivalent. Part of me thinks it went on for far too long (I was surprised to learn afterwards that the editing had included cuts). Yet at the same time, I found it very difficult to put down. Possibly I couldn't help reading on just because I was desperate for the story to end, for May finally to make it to England.

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Jan 15, 2012 Elizabeth Moffat rated it 3 of 5 stars

I found this book very insightful, made all the more poignant by the fact that it is a true story of a friendship developed through emails from a British journalist and an Iraq academic. Apart from the format of the book, I enjoyed the occasional bursts of humour. For example, when May describes that tomatoes are forbidden to be grown alongside cucumbers as it looks quite rude, and goats should wear nappies as the sight of their gentials is too disturbing!

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Sep 08, 2012 Janet rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wonderful account of an Iraqi woman in Baghdad after the invasion. The book is simply an exchange of emails between May Witwit, a professor in Baghdad (yes, she teaches Jane Austen, hence the title) and Bee Rowlatt, a British journalist turned mother of three. What I would really like to see is Witwit's account without her knowing that what she says may affect her ability to get a visa allowing her to leave Baghdad.

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Feb 19, 2013 Annika Bourgogne rated it 4 of 5 stars

What an interesting (and shocking) glimpse into the life of an Iraqi woman during the war. The contrast with the life of her penpal in England was really disturbing, but then again that's what made this true story so interesting. I just don't understand how she could go on about parties and how hard it is to take care of three kids while writing to a person who was dodging bullets on a daily basis.

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Sep 11, 2012 Nora Lester Murad rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book accomplished exactly what it set out to do: save lives. The book is not fiction; it is a compilation of emails between Bee Rowlatt, BBC journalist, and May Witwit, an Iraqi academic. They both show vulnerability and authenticity by sharing with readers their daily lives, the growth of their friendship, and the evolving of their plan to get May and her husband Ali out of an increasingly dangerous Baghdad.

As a piece of literature (which it wasn't intended as), it doesn't compare to books...more

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Sep 06, 2011 Maria rated it 2 of 5 stars

La vera storia dell'amicizia, nata via mail, tra una giornalista di Londra (Bee) e un'insegnante di Baghdad (May), che si raccontano quotidianamente le loro differenti vite: alle prese con il lavoro, la famiglia e la maternità la prima; con bombe, milizie e tanta paura la seconda. Un'amicizia che regalerà a May la tanto sognata salvezza dalla dura guerra. Forte e commuovente, da leggere.

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Feb 10, 2011 Tracey rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, autobiography

This is one of the most amazing biographical books you could read. The extraordinary friendship between the two narrators helps to move the book along as they exist in two very different ways of life. This book had me laughing, crying, and biting my nails in fear. The title may be deceiving but dont let it put you off, as this is a book everyone should read.

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May 21, 2010 Lynsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this but had two problems:

1. It ended rather abruptly. I wanted a little bit more.
2. The title seems like a bit of a cheap marketing ploy, publishers knowing that anything with Austen in the title will get attention. Jane Austen is only very briefly mentioned in the book twice at most.

Aside from that, an interesting, absorbing read.

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