51  Egypt – Ahdaf Soueif – The Map of Love (Score 7.40)

Amal is the youngest female of the Egyptian side of the descendants of al-Ghamrawi, the Great-great-grandmother of the lines. She is reading a text written by Anna Winterbourne, the wife of al-Ghamrawi’s grandson Sharif. Their son is Sharif.

Amal is waiting to greet Isabel Parkman, an American journalist. Amal finds that Isabel is the Great-great-granddaughter of al-Ghamrawi, on the international European side of the family.

When I started to read this book I didn’t know much about the history of Egypt, apart from the Pharaohs and Alexander the Great and Cleopatra. Of more modern history, my reading when I was a child was the “Boy’s Own” type of heroic stories, but this book confirms my adult belief that the British Empire was an evil thing, brought about by the greed of men at a high level in the Government and aristocracy.

“The Map of Love” revolves round life in Egypt from the 1830s to the 1960s, that is, from the English invasions and occupation of Egypt to after the Suez crisis, and is written from the points of view of Amal in Egypt and Anna in England and Egypt.

The author seems to be well acquainted with the writings of Victorian authors since she manages the style of their English beautifully.

I don’t want to go into detail of the lives and history of the two women and other members of the cast, all of whom are vital to the story. We do get some information from the point of view of Egyptians about the Suez Canal, the English administration in Egypt, Palestine and the exploitation of people. A typical example of this is the destruction of the Egyptian weaving industry to obtain the cotton grown in Egypt to build up the industry in Lancashire.

The incident on page 501 was so unexpected, but at the same time almost inevitable.

While I was reading the book, by page 70 I was considering giving a score of 7.0. By the time I reached page 516 (the end) I gave it a score of 9.5.

50  Malaya – Tan Twan Eng – The Garden of Evening Mists (Score 9.3)

This is my second score of 10/10 in a row. I absolutely loved this book.

The protagonists of the story is a newly retired woman, Judge Teoh Yun Ling. Her handyman is A Cheong whose wife, A Foon, is dead. They are in the Central Highlands of Malaya. During the Second World War Yun Ling and her sister were imprisoned in a Japanese camp, her sister dying there.

The story moves between the war years and the present in a way which slowly reveals the history of Yun Ling and her old, now missing presumed dead, former neighbour and friend Mr Aritomo. He was once the gardener for the Emperor of Japan. The back-story is about 30 years in the past.

In the present time Judge Teoh is expecting a visit from Professor Yoshikawa Tatsuji. When he arrives he explains that he wishes to write a book on the ukiyo-e (woodblock prints) made by Nakamura Aritomo (Japanese style), and to use some of the prints to illustrate it.

This book deserves careful and attentive reading for the high quality of the language and the writing.

The original inhabitants of Malaya, the Orang Asti play a fairly major part in the story. I searched for information about them and found that they arrived in the area several thousand years ago.

I loved the description of Aritomo’s Kyudo (Japanese archery, infantry style) practice and the way he taught Judge Teoh. I practiced that for several years in Edinburgh in a class taught by a very experienced proponent of the style.

I am not going to say any more about the story as that could seriously spoil your enjoyment of it if you decide to read it. I really hope you do.