Love map

Author's name: Ahdaf Soueif

“A rich novel... a tangled and moving love story that reflects a picture of Egypt at the dawn and end of the twentieth century.” Daily News, New York. “A sweeping, haunting novel.” The Times, London. “A major achievement... bold and vibrant... and romantic without shame.” Literary Review, London. “A completely gripping and astonishingly accomplished novel.” New York Times Book Review. “The story that Egyptian Amal El-Ghamrawy writes at the end of the twentieth century, based on fragments of a story contained in letters, papers, and diaries written by British Anna Winterbourne at the beginning of the century. But it is also a second story, writing itself through the extension of the past into the present, the regression of present-day characters to past characters, and the succession of the century’s cycle through these or those scenes, events, and facts that say: How similar today is to yesterday!” It is, thirdly, the counter-story that Ahdaf Soueif herself proposes this time, when she rereads the past in light of the present and vice versa, and when she places the stereotypes of the past before the mirror of the stereotypes of the present and vice versa. Sobhi Al-Hadidi