The Girls from Alexandria set in Egypt by Carol Cooper

Submitted: 4th October 2024

The Girls from Alexandria with Carol Cooper

When you read a novel set in an Alexandria of times gone by, imagine what it’s like when the author herself has experience of this. She can blend in so many details such as food, custom and the Muslim culture, not to mention the history of the city.

Map of locations in The Girls from Alexandria

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Transports the reader to the city of Alexandria

Map of locations in The Girls from Alexandria

A dual time line story with a woman named Nadia in hospital wondering what happened to her sister in Alexandria. The modern day in the hospital was raw and hard to read at times given the difficulties Nadia is facing with her mental health and in what appears to be quite an oppressive place.

There’s a medical thread running all the way through this. This was the part of the novel that was necessary but hard to read about. When we jump back to the sister’s early days, there was a moment that made me very sad indeed. It explains a lot as the novel jumps forward but it was a difficult moment to read about.

Great that the setting, Alexandria is so well evoked and that it adds the colour that the novel needs. Carol Cooper grew up in the city of which she writes and you can tell. There’s mentions of food, culture and the way she describes the sunset, and peppers the text with local sayings is just lovely. This language angle works well actually as there’s quite a few local languages and sayings in the novel which enriches the overall picture.

I did have a few niggles when the descriptions of the city and the culture became a little flowery and too much at times. It was lovely and necessary but I feel the book and setting would have actually been stronger without so much of it.

The novel is one of light and dark. Light in setting and history and dark in the themes it concentrates on. This is a book of sisterhood, family and more. I had no idea where it was going and where it would end. There are lots of issues and aspects of this that bookclub would love.