The first two-thirds of this book, describing Agnes's early life and travel to Cairo, are well-written and entertaining, and Russell's portraits of the real-life figures of Churchill, Lawrence, and others are fascinating. However, the whole tone of the book is a little too "fly on the wall of history" -- Agnes has no real effect on the unfolding of events, and they in turn don't really do anything to alter the arc of her life. The quasi-mystical/fantasy/religious final segment is completely tacked on and unnecessary. ( )

In Mary Doria Russell's Dreamers of the Day a 40-year-old spinster schoolteacher from Ohio, Agnes Shanklin, who has lived under the thumb of her over-bearing mother, comes into a modest inheritance and decides to take the "trip of a lifetime" to Egypt and the Holy Land. She arrives in Cairo just as the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, which created what we know as the modern Middle East, is about to convene. Here she meets the movers and shakers of that time: Lawrence of Arabia, Winston Churchill and Gertrude Bell. She also attracts the attention of a mysterious German who may or may not be a spy, but definitely gives her the first real romance of her life. Throughout it all, Agnes learns to stand up for her own ideas and desires and truly becomes her own person.

This book, however, is more than just an historical novel. Rather, it seems like Russelll is using the genre of historical fiction to put forward her own political views about the Mid East. Depending on whether of not the reader agrees with her views will probably determine how much any given reader will enjoy this book. ( )

horribly, horribly disappointing. ( )

Awful. She's such a good writer, but this was propaganda disguised as a novel. ( )

Her family's sole survivor of the 1918 influenza epidemic, Agnes Shanklin, a forty-year-old Cleveland schoolteacher, travels to the Middle East. Her arrival in Cairo coincides with the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference; she meets T.E. Lawrence "Lawrence of Arabia" and is drawn into discussions with Gertrude Bell, Winston Churchill and other members of the British delegation who find her opinions on colonialism and nation building insightful and charming. An engaging adventure story with a historical setting skillfully told. ( )