Walking slowly home through the dark avenue of trees, tasting the brackish harbour wind, I remembered Justine saying harshly as she lay in bed: 'We use each other like axes to cut down the ones we really love'.
Alexandria: the great winepress of love. Trams, palm trees, and watermelon stalls lie honey-bathed in sunlight; in darkened bedrooms, sweaty lovers unfurl. But in a world trembling on the brink of war, passion and death are inextricable. When a penniless Anglo-Irish schoolteacher begins an affair with Justine - a married Egyptian lady of unparalleled glamour - their partners, Melissa and Nessim, are sucked into a whirlpool of jealousy and violence.
'A masterpiece.'Guardian 'One of the great works of English fiction.' Times 'Dazzlingly exuberant ... Reckless ... Superb.' Observer 'Brave and brazen ... Lush and grandiose.'Independent 'Legendary ... Casts a spell ... Reader, watch out!'Guardian 'Lushly beautiful ... One of the most important works of our time.'NYTBR 'Triumphant [in its] beauty, cruelty, menace, mystery, decadence . . . ' Spectator