Ahdaf Soueif

“So. Tell me. What do you think? Which is better? To take action and perhaps make a fatal mistake - or to take no action and die slowly anyway?”

This novel centres on three women of three differing nationalities, Egyptian, American, English, one of whom lived nearly a century earlier than the other two. An American woman arrives in Cairo looking for someone to interpret the contents of a trunk that she has inherited. Once there she is befriended by an Egyptian woman who agrees to helps show more her with the task.

The lives of the women are not portrayed in a linear fashion, rather the author reveals each of them piecemeal meaning that the reader discovers the characters and their stories in a way that is akin to how they might unpack the contents of the trunk that is at the heart of the book. Thus the three intersecting stories are revealed to the reader at much the same pace as they are to the characters themselves. This did, however, also mean that it took me a few chapters to realise who was actually telling the story. The family tree at the front of the book was a big help here.

In 1997 American Isabel Parkman, discovers amongst her mother's belongings a trunk and meets and falls in love with, Omar al-Ghamrawi, a famous Egyptian conductor who is known not only for his musical ability but also for his espousal of the Arab cause. As Isabel starts going through the contents of the trunk she realises that, unbeknown to her,she has Egyptian ancestry. Her English great-grandmother, Anna Winterbourne,had married Egyptian, Sharif el-Baroudi, in 1901. On telling Omar about the trunk he suggests that she should take it to Cairo and show it to his sister, Amal, in the hope that she might help translate the Arabic portion of the journals.

Amal immerses herself in Anna's story and in particular the love affair between Anna and the Egyptian nationalist leader who became her husband. Widowed Anna travelled to Egypt in 1900 after her husband's death. Once there she comes to dislike the insular lives of most of the colonial Britons that she meets there. Unlike most of her country men and women she wants to learn the language and about the indigenous people. She wants to experience a side of Egypt that the colonials ignore and one day disguised as a man in order to see the beauties of the Sinai Desert, she and her guide are captured by young nationalists. Her captives are appalled when they learn of her true identity and in their panic hand her over in to the care of the sister of an influential Egyptian lawyer, the man who will come her future husband.

As the two women's' friendship grows so does Anna's doubts about the British occupation of the country, gradually seeing her own nation's presence as being deeply malign as Egypt strives to free itself from the auspices of the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. The longer Anna spends in the country the more sympathetic she becomes towards the Egyptians' cause. Nor do the repercussions of British rule end there. Nearly one hundred years on the legacies of British occupation continue to affect Amal's generation.

Although Britain's influence in Egypt has an important role to play in this novel as it's title would suggest love is the most important element. In particular the fact that love unlike romance comes in many different forms, love of country; love of nature; spiritual love; sensual love; love between family members and friends; love between differing generations.

Soueif cleverly gives an quick oversight of a century of Egyptian politics (unsurprisingly from the biased standpoint of the Egyptians themselves) and in doing so she conveys the sense that whereas love can bind people and nations together politics often only separates them. Equally neither can be fully resolved in one generation instead the ramifications of both are still to be revealed, like a trunk passed from one generation to the next.

''That is the beauty of the past; there it lies on the table: journals, pictures, a candle-glass, a few books of history. . . . You can leaf forward and know the end. And you tell the story that they, the people who lived it, could only tell in part.''

I found this an accomplished piece of writing from an author whom I had not previously read before, an surprisingly engaging and detailed portrayal of LOVE in its many forms. show less

This is a wonderful book, in which 2 distant cousins (1 Egyptian, 1 American) piece together the hundred year old romance of the American cousin's English great-grandmother and Egyptian great-grandfather. But it's not just a love story, there is a lot of history and politics in there, comparing the situation of Egypt then (nominally ruled by the Turks, but under the control of the British) and now (pressurised by the Americans and the World Bank). I enjoyed it much more than I expected, due show more to the many facets of the story. show less

The Map of Love By Adaf Soueif

Beautifully written love story set against both contemporary Egypt and the early 20th century tumultuous British occupation. There is much detail about Egyptian history and the culture of the Arabic society, related in letters and dialogue. While it might be advantageous to have a background in this era, the broad outline is apparent and accessible.

At the heart is a family history and a love story, the intertwining of two cultures- the lovely British Lady Anna show more and the upperclass Egyptian lawyer Sharif Basha al-Baroudi who can only converse together in French.

The beautifully described scenery, the family home, the color and feel of the women's silk gowns were vivid. Indeed, when Amal writes, after reading Lady Anna's 1901 journal entry about her betrothal . . .

"Looking up from Anna’s journal I am, for a moment, surprised to find myself in my own bedroom, her trunk standing neatly by the wall, my bed, the top sheet folded back, waiting for me to ease myself in. I had been so utterly in that scene, in the hall of the old house, in my great-grandmother’s haramlek. My heart had beaten in time with Anna’s ..."

- I felt exactly how she felt, so immersed was I in the story. The events that affect this family had deep roots that continue to be felt in this troubled region of the world today. show less

A bit sentimental, and pushes rather a lot of the obvious postcolonial buttons, but I enjoyed it. A good fast read, for all its 500 pages, and plenty of Egyptian atmosphere. The "now-and-then" historical novel form isn't exactly untrodden ground, but Soueif makes a very competent job of it: even Lady Anna's slightly stilted Victorian prose sounds almost right. The only point where it goes right over the top is the camel expedition into the Sinai desert. But, as she says herself later in the show more book: "there have to be camels". You couldn't really imagine a novel about Egypt for Western readers that doesn't include camels and a bit of "native dress". show less