The Photographer's Wife

It is mid-summer in 1891 and Emile Touta is gathering his extended family for the annual photograph on the beach at Alexandria, when he falls in love with Dora. Soon they marry. Helping in her new husband s portrait studio, Dora finds herself drawn to photography and her work soon eclipses Emile s efforts. The studio s reputation soars and Cairo s high society is swiftly clamouring to be photographed there. However Dora s behaviour and ambition shock many. Meanwhile nationalism is taking root in British-occupied Egypt. Dora, in a radical gesture of her own, leaves for Khartoum, to cover the British conquest of Sudan. Alone there, she begins finally to reconcile her identities as a talented artist and a woman of her society. Robert Sole s evocation of late 19th century Egyptian society, peopled by a confidently and exuberantly drawn cast of characters, is a powerful historical fiction which makes no concession to sentimental nostalgia.