Sunset Oasis

In the early years of British rule in Egypt, Mahmoud Abd el-Zahir, a police officer suspected of sympathy for the defeated Urabi revolt, is posted to the Siwa oasis on a dangerous mission that cost his predecessors their lives. He hopes the desert will let him escape a sense of failure, political and private, but his Irish wife Catherine, a lover of antiquities, comes along to search for the tomb of Alexander the Great. In the oasis he must collect taxes from wary inhabitants, while his colleague Wasfi schemes with the local Sheikh Saber and reports against him. His marriage cools, and he is drawn to Catherine's sister Fiona, who has travelled to Siwa in search of a cure. The tolerant healer Sheikh Yahya and Maleeka, a girl married off to an old man, pull the story in other directions.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

290 pages in the original

Genres

Historical (assigned by AI)

Set in

Egypt, late 19th century

First published

2006 by Dar al-Hilal

Author's age

71 when first published

ISBN

9789770712269 (original)

9780340924877 (Sceptre, United Kingdom)

9780340924884 (Sceptre, United Kingdom)