By Nouran Maamoun
The Map of Love’s antagonist Anna Winterbourne comes to Egypt from England in the early 1900s after the death of her husband, fascinated by everything Egyptian and eager to see the country from a new perspective.
In her attempt to see the beauty of Egypt and the desert, she dresses as a man but gets kidnapped by members of the Egyptian resistance, who mistake her for a young British man. When their leader, the well-educated Sherif Al-Barodi Pasha, finds out she was a women, he is furious at his men’s’ actions and determined to right their wrong. He takes Anna on her dream trip to Sinai and during this trip they fall for each other despite the huge age difference between them.
It is not just a romance novel, Ahdaf Soueif writes about wide aspects of history and politics within her stories. It shows the realities of occupation and its effects on the people. It also follows the course of history across the much controversial 19th century, with all its pros and cons.
Although Soueif discusses many issues and tells many tales, it is well tied together. The love stories allows for the discussion of Egyptian nationalism during the British colonisation, which subtly brings the readers’ attention. The story is set in the present while its roots are deeply immersed in the past.
Throughout the novel, the story is told through fragments of old letters and journal entries by some of the characters. These documents were found and narrated by the main character in the novel to relive the story of Egypt’s history.
The novel starts slow and tedious to introduce all the characters and the story unfolds into different story lines. The large number of characters and their complicated relations are also a bit difficult to grasp but there is a map of the family tree in the few front pages of the book to remind readers of the characters and their relationship to each other.
The Map of Love was originally written in English, although the author Soueif is Egyptian. It was translated into Arabic by her late mother, Fatima Moussa, who was known as the “the dean of translation”.
Soueif and her family are well known in the Egyptian cultural and political scenes.
Published in 1999, at the turn of the century, the Map of Love was met with great admiration and appreciation as it goes back and forth between the beginning and the end of the 19th century, observing the differences between the generations, their stories and their struggles.
