The Alexandria Semaphore - Hardcover

Sole, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860468888 ISBN 13: 9781860468889

Publisher: Harvill Pr, 2001

Synopsis

On the very night the young Maxime Touta first arrived in Alexandria, the khedive died. It was January 1863 and the dawn of a new era. Egypt was in thrall to the French, whose Suez Canal would transform Egypt's fortunes, and the pawn of the British, and yet she was Ottoman at heart.
For the thirteen-year-old it proved an awakening of every sort, for there he met Albin Balinvin, the Cairo correspondent of the Semaphore d'Alexandrie, a man who was not afraid to speak or write the truth. In years to come he would be Maxime's teacher and mentor. And Nada Sahel came into his life - a young orphan girl under his father's protection and, like the Toutas, a Syrian exile. She would be his life's passion.
A successful journalist Maxime looks back over a dramatic and romantic period in history - Egypt's and his own. He casts a wry, affectionate eye over the foibles of both the Touta clan and the nation's rulers, the exuberant nature of family life alongside the political machinations of the day. The Alexandria Semaphore is an enthralling family saga, an authentic reconstruction of Egyptian history and the most tender of love stories.

About this title

From the Inside Flap

In 1863 thirteen-year-old Maxime Touta watched a young officer being publicly degraded in the Place des Consuls in Alexandria. The scene marked the beginning of an extraordinary period in 19th century Egypt, which was then governed by the European puppet ruler, the Khedive Ismail, a man who dreamed of turning Cairo into a new Paris and who promoted one of the great engineering feats of the century, the construction of the Suez Canal. Maxime grows up against the background of an Egypt that is still Ottoman in many ways, but which is increasingly prey to British and French colonial rivalry. It is he who narrates this compelling novel that is, at once, a love story, an enthralling family saga and a reconstruction of a romantic and dangerous period in Egyptian history. In bringing the period so vividly to life Robert Solé once again shows his mastery as a historical novelist.

About the Author

Robert Solé was born in Cairo in 1946 and now lives in Paris. Harvill has published two of his novels in English, Birds of Passage and The Photographer's Wife. Birds of Passage was the winner of the Prix Méditerranée.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvill Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1860468888
• ISBN 13: 9781860468889
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304