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WT???? What editor let this get published with Part 9 still attached? SPOILER A perfectly reasonable piece of not-too-heavy -handed revisionist historical fiction ends with reincarnation in the Nile? Water borne diseases thrive in the Nile, not lunacy! We'll skip a 1920s maiden teacher voting for Debbs and keeping her job. Small change. A German Jewish character prescient enough to equate the Armenian genocide with the future fate of Jews (but then doesn't leave Nazi Germany? ??)...that's a stre
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I really liked this for about the first half. The protagonist, a "spinster" school teacher from Ohio, loses her entire family (mother, uncle, sister, brother in law, nephews) to the Spanish flu and decides to use her inheritance to travel to Egypt where her sister served as a missionary. In Cairo, she stumbles across Lawrence of Arabia, Churchill, Gertrude Bell and a charming German diplomat. While she enjoys the illustrious company and the chance at love, the Brits are busy plotting out the fut
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I am so glad I found this author. She is quite good.
While I'm sure much will be made of the book's obvious political overtones and its convergence with the current conflicts in the Middle East, the story's true center is of a no-longer-young woman constrained by her past that finds her own internal boundaries redrawn. A big departure from the books that made Russell famous, but it retains that quiet thoughtfulness that marks her work.
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This book started out so good, then fizzled to nothing more than facts from history books. Very disappointing.
Jul 20, 2009
erin
marked it as to-read
Feb 02, 2013
Kirsty
marked it as to-read
Apr 10, 2015
Keith
marked it as to-read
Mar 14, 2020
Christi
marked it as to-read
Jun 05, 2024
Tammy AZ
marked it as to-read
