Espionage, love, and power play upon the shifting sands of wartime Cairo
CAIRO, EGYPT 1941. As the Second World War rages, the city known as "Paris on the Nile" plays host to an international set who seem more interested in polo matches and swanky nightclubs than the Germans' unrelenting advance across North Africa. Meanwhile, as refugees, soldiers, and spies stream into the city, the Nazis conspire with the emerging Muslim Brotherhood to fuel the Egyptian people's seething resentment against their British overlords.
Ambitious American journalist Mickey Connolly has come to Cairo to report on the true state of the war. Facing expulsion by the British for not playing by their rules, he accepts a deal from the U.S. embassy that allows him to remain in the country. His covert mission: to infiltrate the city's thriving Jewish community and locate a refugee nuclear scientist who could be key to America's new weapons program. But Mickey is not the only one looking for the elusive scientist. A Nazi spy is also desperate to find him--and the race is on. Into this mix an enigmatic young woman appears, a refugee herself. Her fate becomes intertwined with Mickey's, giving rise to a story of passion, entangled commitments, and half-truths.
Deftly blending the romantic noir of the classic film Casablanca with a riveting, suspenseful narrative and vivid historical detail, City of the Sun offers a stunning portrayal of a time and place that was not only pivotal for the war, but also sowed much of the turbulence in today's Middle East.
Juliana Maio has written an impressive debt novel. She is a natural story teller.
Set in Cairo, Egypt in 1941 with WWII in full swing. There was a thriving Jewish community in Cairo and it became a common destination for Jews escaping the Fascist regimes of Europe. Egypt looking to free themselves from British domination formed close ties with the Nazi's. The Nazi's where funding militant nationalistic societies using them to promote antisemitism in Cairo.
Set against this backdrop Maio weaves a tale of romance, intrigue, deception. I enjoyed this book but felt that the affair between Maya and Mickey overshadowed the story. The story is the an emerging Egypt looking to free itself from the British, the Nazi's fueling a growing Egyptian nationalism with propaganda about both the Jews and British. The politics of the time became the backdrop where I would have enjoyed the story more if the politics were in the forefront with the romance in the background.
The Jews have a long history in Egypt, the onset of WWII was the beginning of the end for them. During WWII there were 80,000 Jews in Cairo, today there are less than 40. I look forward to this author bringing us more of the Jews in Egypt.
