Winner of the Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2007.
A story that veers back and forth between war-time Cairo and Iris’ early life and the present, with Ruby, her somewhat mixed-up but feisty 17-year old granddaughter who has run away from England. 
With wonderful descriptions of the sounds, sights and smells of Cairo against a background of expatriate life and Rommel’s war, this is first rate, she is such a competent writer. It’s amazing how, having read Sun at Midnight, set in Antarctica, you can imagine her having spent years in cold climates, she now, one book later, comes up giving you the feeling that she has spent a lifetime in Africa.
Similar this month: None but try Victoria Routledge.
Comparison: Anita Shreve, Douglas Kennedy.
| Primary Genre | Family Drama |
| Other Genres: | |
| Recommendations: |
Fragility and forgetfulness have left 82-year-old Iris vulnerable and in the care of her manservant, Mamdooh. Stiflingly quiet and claustrophobic, Iris's house in old Cairo is disturbed by the unexpected arrival of her troubled and wilful granddaughter, Ruby. Labouring under a fraught relationship with her family, Ruby has run away from England to seek solace with the grandmother she hasn't seen for many years.
An unlikely bond arises as the two women open themselves up to one another. Ruby helps Iris document her deteriorating memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of World War Two, a time when she lost her heart to her one true love - the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneux - and then lost him to the ravages of the war.
This early devastation of Iris's heart shapes her life as well as that of her daughter and her granddaughter. It is this need to recover Iris's past and solidify Ruby's present that leads the two women into terrible danger in the Egyptian desert.
Rich and alive with descriptions of the bustling streets of Cairo and the vast, foreboding desert surrounding it, Iris and Ruby is a highly moving story spanning three generations of one family.
Iris and Ruby features in the following genres: Family Drama, Historical Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, Recommendations
Iris and Ruby is available in Ebook, Paperback (b Format)
Iris and Ruby was written by Rosie Thomas and published by Harpercollins Publishers
Iris and Ruby has 480 pages
