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| The Map of Love | 
 enlarge | Author: Ahdaf Soueif
Publisher: Anchor Books
Category: Book
List Price: £9.74
Buy Used: £2.16
You Save: £7.58 (78%)
Used (35) Collectible (1) from £2.16
Avg. Customer Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 1001238
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 0385720114
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.914
EAN: 9780385720113
ASIN: 0385720114
Publication Date: September 2000
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Dispatched from the US -- Expect delivery in 2-3 weeks. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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Amazon.co.uk Review
Ahdaf Soueif's The Map of Love is a massive family saga, a story that draws its readers into two moments in the complex, and troubled, history of modern Egypt. The story begins in New York, in 1997: Isabel Parkman discovers an old trunk full of documents--some in English, some in Arabic--in her dying mother's apartment. Omar-al- Ghamrawi, a man with whom she is falling in love, directs her to his sister, Amal, in Cairo. Together the two women begin to uncover the stories embedded in the journal of Lady Anna Winterbourne (who travels to Egypt in 1900 and falls in love with Sharif Pasha al- Barudi, an Egyptian Nationalist) and the unsuspected connections between their own families. British colonialism, Egyptian nationalism, the clash of cultures in the Middle East in 1900 and the present day: the different narratives of The Map of Love weave a subtle, and reflective, tale of love across culture and conflict--the ways in which relations between individuals may (or may not) make the difference. "I am in an English autumn in 1897 and Anna's troubled heart lies open before me": Amal's response to Anna Winterbourne's journal could be a description of how to read this fascinating book, its invitation to use words as a means to travel through time, space and identity. --Vicky Lebeau
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
Egypt, past and present November 11, 2008
I must admit I picked this up because of the cover and in my head it was a different book. A happy error!
A British Lady falls in love with an Egyptian Pasha in 1900s Egypt. Her great-granddaughter goes through the papers in her trunk and enlists a distant cousin's help to re-discover her story. The story is narrated by this cousin in 1997, reminding herself of the tales her mother had told her.
Knowing very little about modern Egypt, the book is set at key points in Egypt's history - turn of the century, with Egypt struggling for independence from Turkey and British influence and 1997, a turbulent year with terrorist attacks.
 An entry into a different world October 21, 2007
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, which did what the best books do - taught me something and enriched my understanding of the world and other people.
I knew next to nothing about Egypt, but now I feel that I understand the atmosphere in which the characters lived, their syle(s) of life, and above all about the British Empire and its effect on subject peoples. JB
Full of passion February 23, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a great book, a becon for Arabs and Muslims. The story is passionate on every front, passionate in the love story, passionate in patriotism, passionate in its anguish at the unjust. Mesmerising and captivating. Reading its pages is like being on the ondulating sea, with waves that take you up and down, sometimes rough, sometimes tranquil. I agree with the critic that called "Egypt" the true heroine. The history is infused in the story and you feel trapped in that time, living the same battle lived by many Egyptians, angry at the colonialists and angry still, seeing that 100 years down the line, the same politic is applied under a different banner. But history, as the book says, will run its course. One day it will be our day.
Ahdaf Soueif is marvellous, a model to all the talents of the arabs... something to look up to and be proud of.
My hope now is for someone to turn it into a movie, a sensitive movie that transpires history and tells the story as it truly is.
A beautifully written book June 27, 2006
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Not just a beautiful and moving love story, but a history of Egypt and colonialism. I couldn't put it down.
A fascinating read April 11, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This amazing book that deals with the intricacies involved when two people from different cultures , from nations that have different histories and directions who love another come to realize that their lives together is a challenge that is not based on love alone and that time hasn't and will never mitigate the inherent differences. This is a must read for those embracing multi-culturalism, cosmopolitanism and the global economy. One thing for sure is that this novel is a thought-provoking, socially challenging and compelling read. I highly recommend it along with:Disciples of Fortune, Sugar Street, The usurper and other Stories
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