I found this book utterly compelling. With a flavour of I Capture the Castle, a hint of Atonement and a dash of A Passage to India; the innocent voice of the teenage Isis - trapped in a rambling mansion with her Egypt-obsessed twin Osiris - interweaves with the wryly cynical tone of her ninety-year-old self. Lesley Glaister conjures up a marvellous sense of place contrasting the stultifying confinement of a 1920s childhood with the heat and tension of an abortive visit to the tombs of Egypt. A richly dark read with comic undertones and an acute eye for detail.
| Primary Genre | Family Drama |
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Winner 2014 Jerwood Fiction Uncovered PrizeLonglisted: International Dublin Literary Award 2016Sunday Herald Book of the Year 2014Elderly, Egypt-mad twins Isis and Osiris find their neglected English lives disturbed to catastrophic effect by the arrival of American Anarchist, SpikeNew from Lesley Glaister, winner of the Somerset Maugham, Betty Trask and Yorkshire Post Author of the Year prizes'This tale of imprisonment and neglect explores our passion for nostalgia, with hints of Dodie Smith's darker side. An excellent read that pulls at the heart as well as the head.' -Victoria Clark, The Lady'Eerily atmospheric Little Egypt, made me shudder; certain passages were read through half-closed eyes, the way you watch grisly scenes in a film - desperate to know what happens, but not wanting to disturbing images imprinted on your mind.' -Rosemary Goring, The HeraldLittle Egypt was once a well-to-do country house in the north of England. Now it's derelict and trapped on a small island of land between a railway, a dual carriageway and a superstore, and although it looks deserted it isn't. Nonagenarian twins, Isis and Osiris, still live in the home they were born in, and from which in the 1920s their obsessive Egyptologist parents left them to search for the fabled tomb of Herihor - a search from which they never returned. Isis and Osiris have stayed in the house, guarding a terrible secret, for all their long lives until chance meeting between Isis and young American anarchist Spike, sparks an unlikely friendship and proves a catalyst for change. 'I was gripped by the story from start to finish, finding it a perturbing, poignant and, in places, a darkly humorous read.' -Amazon.co.ukThis enormously accomplished novel took twenty years to come to fruition: it is well worth the wait - buy your copy now.
Little Egypt features in the following genres: Family Drama, Modern and Contemporary Fiction, eBooks of the Month, Fiction, General Fiction, Recommendations
Little Egypt is available in Ebook, Paperback
Little Egypt was written by Lesley Glaister and published by Salt
£7.99
