The Map of Love by Ahdaf Soueif, is a sweeping novel set in Egypt at the turn of the 20th century during British occupation, with a parallel story set 100 years later at the turn of the millenium.

In the modern story, we meet Isabel, an American journalist who has fallen in love with an older Egyptian man, and travelled to Egypt where she becomes close friends with his sister. In a box of Isabel’s great grandmother’s personal belongings she finds a diary which tells of her life in Egypt after her husband died and she left England, fell in love with a Egyptian nationalist, and married him. Isabel discovers that she is cousins with the man she has fallen in love with, and an intriguing story of love and politics unfolds.

The novel spans centuries and continents and I was fully engrossed in the story the whole time. Soueif does a wonderful job evoking Egypt under British occupation, and showing how although much has changed in the past century, some things haven’t changed at all. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel.