The classic WW2 historical fiction saga -- hailed as "among the very best fiction about the Second World War" -- continues with this second trilogy following the Pringles family (Sunday Times).

As the Nazi army advances, English ex-pats are caught overseas in the Middle East amid personal battles between courage and fear, love and betrayal.

Olivia Manning returns to the story of the young English couple Guy and Harriet Pringle, last seen at the end of The Balkan Trilogy departing from Athens ahead of the invading Nazi army. Now, in the spring of 1941, they arrive in Egypt as Rommel's forces slowly but surely approach Cairo across the Sahara from the west. Will the city fall?

In the streets, the people contemplate welcoming a new set of occupiers, while European refugees and well-heeled Anglo-Egyptians prepare to pack their bags. And at night, everyone who is anyone flocks to the city's famed hotels and seedy cabarets, seeking one last dance before the tanks roll in.

Manning describes the Pringles' ever complicated marriage and their motley group of friends and foes with the same sharp eye that earned The Balkan Trilogy a devoted following. And she also traces the fortunes of a marvelously drawn new character, Simon Boulderstone, a twenty-year-old recruit who must grapple with the boredom, chaos, and fleeting exhilaration of war.

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• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionBritish & Irish
• Literature & FictionLiterary FictionSagas

• Publication Date: June 10, 2014
• Text-to-Speech: Disabled
• Lending: Disabled
• Print Length: 584 Pages
• File Size: 18 KB