The Map Of Love

Ahdaf Soueif expertly weaves together two tales of love across different cultures and generations that reveal startling parallels with each other.  “Vivid, passionate and shedding, as true love does, a brilliant, revealing light on the world beyond itself” (The Sunday Telegraph London).

At the turn of the 20th century, the widowed Lady Anna Winterbourne meets Sharif Pash al-Barudi, an Egyptian nationalist in Cairo. She represents the antithesis of everything he stands for but they fall in love and marry. Intertwined with this romance is the story of Isabel Parkman, an American divorcee, and Omar-al-Ghamrawi, both descendants of Anna and Sharif, who face the same challenges to their love.

“Epic... Soueif is at her most eloquent on the subject of her homeland, her prose rich with historical detail and debate. Ultimately, Egypt emerges as the true heroine of this novel.”  –  The Independent (London)

Ahdaf Soueif is an author and leading journalist. Her novels include Aisha, Sandpiper, and In the Eye of the Sun. Her collection of cultural and political essays, Mezzaterra, was published in 2004, as was her translation of I Saw Ramallah by Mourid Barghouti. She has been awarded the Blue Metropolis Literary Prize (in Montreal) and the Constantin Cavafis Award (in Cairo and Athens), and is also the founder of the Palestine Festival of Literature, PalFest, for which she was awarded the Hay Medal for Festivals in 2017.