First published 2008
As the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference convenes, unassuming Agnes Shanklin finds herself an unlikely confidante to the historic figures redrawing the map of the Middle East. Swept into geopolitical intrigue, the forty-year-old Ohio schoolteacher must navigate the high-stakes maneuverings of Churchill, Lawrence, and Bell, even as she reckons with her own personal awakening. A graceful, compulsively readable tale of how the past shapes the present.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, 20th-century, political-thriller
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, historical-figures
Setting: Middle East
Period: 1914-1923
253 pages · Hardcover · Random House