Random House (NY), 2008. 1ST. HARDBOUND. LIKE NEW in LIKE NEW jacket. 1ST. 6.52 x 1.01 x 9.29 inches. pp. 253. Publisher: Random House; 1st edition (March 11, 2008) Language: English HARDBOUND: 253 pages ISBN-10: 1400064716 ISBN-13: 978-1400064717 Item Weight: 1.2 POUNDS Dimensions: 6.52 x 1.01 x 9.29 inches. So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Mary Doria Russell's compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin's little story? Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world-and of our own.

Synopsis

"I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won't really understand your times until you understand mine."So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Mary Doria Russell's compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin's "little story?" Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world--and of our own.A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions--and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie--enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. Neither a pawn nor a participant at the conference, Agnes is ostensibly insignificant, and that makes her a welcome sounding board for Churchill, Lawrence, and Bell. It also makes her unexpectedly attractive to the charismatic German spy Karl Weilbacher. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening. With prose as graceful and effortless as a seductive float down the Nile, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East with a story that brilliantly elucidates today's headlines. As enlightening as it is entertaining, Dreamers of the Day is a memorable, passionate, gorgeously written novel.From the Hardcover edition.

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Bookseller: BookQuest (US)
Bookseller's Inventory #: 70093
Title: Dreamers of the Day
Author: Russell, Mary Doria
Format/Binding: HARDBOUND
Book Condition: New LIKE NEW in LIKE NEW jacket
Quantity Available: 1
Edition: 1ST
Binding: Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1400064716
ISBN 13: 9781400064717
Publisher: Random House (NY)
Place of Publication: New York
Date Published: 2008
Keywords: Fiction / Women teachers / History / Literature / Historical fiction / Fiction, romance, historical / Teachers, fiction / Middle east, fiction / Large type books / Pets / Spies / Fiction, historical / Egypt, fiction / Fiction, historical, general /

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