Life on the Nile

by Janice Elliott

Cover worn, page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

Genres: Literature, Fiction, Egypt

Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Janice Elliott was a journalist, novelist, and children's author.

Reviews

[Zuberino · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a shame that Janice Elliott isn't better known, because on the evidence of this novel, she was a writer of considerable talent. She seems to belong to that category of post-war writers who wrote fiction that was highly regarded at the time but has since been almost completely forgotten. Partly this seems to be a question of timing. There were any number of writers who plied their trade with competence, even excellence, between the end of the war and the arrival of the craze for literary prizes in the 1990s --- sadly their book covers are rarely awash with the deluge of effusive blurbs and obscure awards that has become de rigueur for even the most mundane of today's authors.

Well, that's my guess anyhow.

Either way, Life on the Nile is a fine read, describing as it does the journey of one Western woman in Egypt and into history. Charlotte Hamp is seeking the truth about a long dead ancestor who was murdered in 1924 in her home in Aswan. Charlotte's pursuit takes her far into the upper reaches of the Nile, and along her route comes revelation after revelation from the left-behind letters and journals of the late Phoebe Duncan, who it turns out was more deeply involved in the revolutionary fervour of the 1920s than may have been good for her.

It's a slight but well-proportioned novel - certainly no door-stopper. (Maybe Elliott's lack of grand amibition also has something to do with her present-day obscurity?) Throughout, she impresses with her exact descriptions of Egypt, evoking wonderfully the physical realities and emotional truths of that ancient land as they appear to one flailing outsider. For me, that has always been the hallmark of a good descriptive writer - transportation, or the ability to achieve total immersion in another time and place. Sun, river, desert - all throb with intense immediacy in 'Life on the Nile'. So good indeed was the quality of this immersion that I am now loth to turn away from it, from the heat and dust of the tropics, reluctant to turn back to East Europe again and to cold-climate authors like James Meek or Charles Powers which had been my original plan after this book. So instead I chose to move on to Damon Galgut's South Africa! Can't say fairer than that...

*

Previously: An impulse buy, this one - one of those books you randomly pick up when running your eye down the rows of books in a second-hand shop and immediately decide to buy, swayed by pure intrigue. It could be the allure of the title, or a particularly eye-catching cover, or the blurb in the back. For me, it was the title that did it, and then the blurb. When you have tried out as many books on Cairo and Egypt as I have, picking up this one was almost a foregone conclusion. So far, so good though. Just a hint of mystery to begin with, but slowly intensifying...

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Charlotte is in modern day Egypt with Leo while he works and are amidst a group party just on holiday.
But Charlotte has a purpose, she is there to unravel a family mystery from the 1920s in which one of her relatives was brutally slain.
Ironically both women had similar lives, both there following their husband or partner for their work and also both lived at times with great political upheaval so the past and present with a seamlessly yet juxtaposed effect mirroring and blending the women's experiences.
A slow burn yet intricately multi layered murder mystery.