The Map of Love

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Shortlisted for the prestigious Booker Prize in England, The Map of Love was easily one of the Discover reading group's favorite books this season. A tale of passion and alienation, a romantic epic compared to both A.S. Byatt's Possession and Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient in its timelessness, Soueif's second novel is a wonder to behold. It is the story of two Western women at opposite ends of the twentieth century who find themselves in love with men whose histories anchor them to another place and time: Egypt. In 1901, newly widowed Anna Winterbourne leaves Britain to explore Egypt and finds herself enraptured with the culture and the affections of a particular man-Sharif Pasha al-Baroudi. Nearly a century later, a descendant of Anna and Sharif, a divorced American journalist named Isabel Parkman, similarly finds herself involved with an Egyptian-American conductor-a difficult, yet passionate man, who is fiercely loyal to his politics. To better understand her own conflicted feelings and discover the truth behind her heritage, Isabel travels to Egypt, where she gradually excavates the long-buried story of Anna and Sharif's illicit affair. A compelling story of love, loyalty, and the cultural and political differences separating East from West, The Map of Love is an exceptional work of fiction from a talented writer.