"I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won’t really understand your times until you understand mine. You must try to feel the hope and amazement of those years. Anything was possible."

These words begin the account of the amazing fictional story of Midwesterner Agnes Shanklin, schoolteacher, influenza epidemic survivor, and world traveler. And what is her story? Her experiences in 1921 at the Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T.E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world. In the space of a few days, these leaders made a plan to divide the Middle East into the countries of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. As history has shown, indeed her story has become our history.

Mary Doria Russell creates a wonderful story that mixes the history of the Middle East with the personal awakening of the narrator, Ms. Shanklin. I listened to the book and the narration by Ann Marie Lee was wonderful. Highly recommended. ~~Enjoy~~ --Kara

From ICPL Staff Picks Blog