Product Description

“I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won’t really understand your times until you understand mine.”

So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Mary Doria Russell’s compelling new novel, Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin’s “little story?” Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world–and of our own.

A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio still reeling from the tragedies of the Great War and the influenza epidemic, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt and the Holy Land. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes, with her plainspoken American opinions–and a small, noisy dachshund named Rosie–enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.

Neither a pawn nor a participant at the conference, Agnes is ostensibly insignificant, and that makes her a welcome sounding board for Churchill, Lawrence, and Bell. It also makes her unexpectedly attractive to the charismatic German spy Karl Weilbacher. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening.

With prose as graceful and effortless as a seductive float down the Nile, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East with a story that brilliantly elucidates today’s headlines. As enlightening as it is entertaining, Dreamers of the Day is a memorable, passionate, gorgeously written novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #271200 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-11
• Released on: 2008-03-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 272 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Russell's enjoyable latest historical is told in the exuberant, posthumous voice (yes, it's narrated from the afterlife) of Agnes Shanklin, a 38-year-old schoolteacher from Cedar Glen, a town near Cleveland, Ohio. After the influenza epidemic of 1919 strikes down Agnes's family, a childless and unmarried Agnes settles the family estate, acquires financial independence and adopts an affable dachshund named Rosie. Accompanied by Rosie, Agnes travels to Cairo during the Cairo Peace Conference, where she befriends Winston Churchill and Lawrence of Arabia among other historical heavy hitters. She also falls in love with the charismatic Karl Weilbacher, a German spy whose interest in Agnes may have less to do with romance than Agnes will allow herself to believe. Agnes's travelogues, while marvelously detailed, distract from the increasingly tense romantic play between Agnes and Karl. When a more worldly-wise Agnes returns home, her life—first as an investor wrecked by the Depression and then a librarian until her death in 1957—remains low-keyed. Though the bizarre, whimsical ending doesn't quite gel, Russell (The Sparrow; A Thread of Grace) has created an instantly likable heroine whose unlikely adventures will keep readers hooked to the end. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
On the heels of a family tragedy precipitated by the influenza epidemic of 1919, middle-aged spinster schoolteacher Agnes Shanklin inherits enough money to embark on the journey of a lifetime. Traveling to Egypt, she settles in at the Semiramis Hotel, where she meets and becomes involved with a number of members of the Cairo Peace Conference, including T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Winston Churchill, and Lady Gertrude Bell. As these luminaries begin to carve up the Middle East, the unassuming Agnes wins the confidence of the conference attendees and attracts the attention of a dashing German spy. Narrated by Agnes from beyond the grave—a twist that is not revealed until the end of the book—this atmospheric entrée into a bygone time and place provides a first-person peek into the international political machinations that forged the contemporary Arab world. A natural for book-club discussions. --Margaret Flanagan

About the Author
Mary Doria Russell is the author of The Sparrow, Children of God, and A Thread of Grace. Her novels have won nine national and international literary awards, including the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the James Tiptree Award, and the American Library Association Readers Choice Award. The Sparrow was selected as one of Entertainment Weekly’s ten best books of the year, and A Thread of Grace was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Russell lives in Cleveland, Ohio. Contact her at www.MaryDoriaRussell.info.

Customer Reviews

A Vivid Trip Back in Time
In her prior books, Russell has clearly shown that she knows how to delineate very real characters. With this book of historical fiction, centered around the events of 1918-1921, this attribute shows just as clearly, with a fine portrait of Agnes Shanklin, her protagonist, but perhaps even more significantly, her pictures of historical luminaries such as T. E. Lawrence and Winston Churchill.

Agnes has quite an inferiority complex engendered by her mother's constant criticism, a lack of self confidence about her looks and her abilities. The first section of this book details her upbringing and shows just who she is, a living, breathing person. Almost as a sidelight to this exemplary characterization, this section informs the reader of effects of the Great Influenza pandemic of 1918-9 and is a great depiction of the mores, customs, and daily life of that time, making some great commentary on just why that way of life disappeared so suddenly, to be replaced by the `roaring twenties'. But this first section of the book is merely an introduction, for when the flu kills off everyone else in her family, leaving Agnes the sole inheritor of various estates, she decides to take a trip to Egypt and the Holy Land, inspired by her late sister's forays in this area of the world.

The second section is the heart of this novel, as Agnes arrives in Egypt and through some fortuitous circumstances becomes a distant part of the group of people present at time in Cairo, from Churchill and Lawrence to Lady Gertrude Bell, who would eventually determine the political landscape of the middle east for many years to come, and the effects of which are still being felt today. It is a little bit unbelievable that such a relatively `minor' person such as Agnes would become part of this group (such things are always a problem when trying to insert a fictional character into a historical setting), but Russell does a good and somewhat humorous job of setting this up, and it must be remembered that the European `community' in Cairo at this time was quite small and insular. Once you accept that Agnes has been `adopted' by these luminaries, the rest follows quite logically, and this is where this book shines. Russell's depiction of the sights, sounds, smells, climate, and history of this region are remarkable, even if some of the history takes the form of essays - these blocks of expository material fit very well with the rest of the story, and give the reader a lot of context for current events.

Right alongside this travelogue is her depiction of the people surrounding her. T. E. Lawrence comes across as a far more complicated man than the character shown in the Lawrence of Arabia movie (although Peter O'Toole's finely nuanced depiction did much to hint at the depths of the man), and the Churchill shown here is not the famous Prime Minister of WWII fame, but rather the fairly lowly government functionary still trying to live down the debacle of Gallipoli. At the same time as this Cairo peace conference was making its way to becoming history, Agnes herself blossoms, becoming romantically involved with a local German, and finding that her thoughts, opinions, and actions are important, that she can be more than just a mouse.

The final section, which details some of Agnes' life after returning to America, is not as strong as the rest of the book, as it is told from a metaphysical viewpoint that doesn't quite jibe with the tone or feeling of the rest of the book, with a strong `message' component that is probably not necessary - Russell has already gotten this message across in the earlier sections, and much more effectively by `showing' rather than `telling'.

This book was clearly well and heavily researched, bringing to life a period of history that few Americans have any knowledge of, even though the events depicted here have a strong influence on our current involvement in the region. Russell provides a decent bibliography of her sources, a great aid for anyone wishing to find out more about this time and place.

An excellent book in many ways, perhaps not quite as strong as her The Sparrow, but definitely worth reading.

---Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)

Our Human Addiction to War
Mary Doria Russell's wonderful new novel "Dreamers of the Day" serves to remind us that much of what we rail against today such as lying politicians, "spin", jingoism, sloganism, manipulative advertising, fear of a flu pandemic and xenophobia, aren't new phenomenon at all. Yet we repeat the same mistakes. Ultimately this is an eloquent novel about our human addiction to war.

Speaking from somewhere beyond the grave, our protagonist, Agnes Shanklin, a very plain spinster schoolmarm from Ohio, takes us through WWI, the Spanish Flu pandemic and finally to Egypt on the brink of the Cairo Conference where, somewhat arbitrarily, the Middle East was divvied up and which set into motion the history that we are now experiencing. Of course we have perfect hind-sight, but that makes Agnes' observations all the more interesting. And then there is romance...just the right amount for this sweeping story and completely within context and character of our delightful narrator.

I've been a Russell fan since a friend urged me to read a novel she said was about "Jesuit priests who go to a distant planet"...and I thought to myself "is she KIDDING?" I agreed to give "The Sparrow" a try and then couldn't put it down and raced out to get the sequel before I was half-way done. Her novels get better and better, and though I tried to make this one last by slowing down...I couldn't. Now I'm sad because I have to wait for the next one which can't come soon enough for me.

Make up your mind
It saddens me to give this book such a poor rating as Mary Doria Russell is one of my favorite writers. When I was only 100 pages into The Sparrow, I was hooked on this author. The sequel was even better, and then comes A Thread of Grace, a very different kind of story, but beautifully written, and very moving, with characters we come to care about. Like many fans, I waited with great anticipation for Dreamers of the Day, and purchased it as soon as it was available. But, alas, while informative, I found it disappointing and a very dull read.

It seems as if Russell couldn't decide if she should be writing a non-fiction history of the era and events that transpired, or a novel. In the end, this book fails on both accounts and just seems contrived. Agnes Shanklin, the main character, is "described" to us through her narration about herself and her life, but we never feel we really know Agnes. In fact, we don't really get to know anyone, nor invest any feeling in any of the characters. Each and every one of them, from the the nobodies, to the history makers, come off as nothing more than summaries of themselves and their world.

This is a very short book, and an easy read, but it drags, so seems much longer. Russell could have made this such a better book. Had it been 2, or even 3, times longer, with fleshed out characters and more fictional imaginings woven into the history, this could have been a truly great book. Clavell, McCullough, Rutherford, George, Penman, Follett and many, many more - all have written much more gripping and engaging stories that kept the reader involved, even riveted, against a background of very real historical facts.

Though this is Russell's 4th book, I consider it a first attempt in the historical fiction genre . I am very surprised by all the great reviews this book has garnered. I just hope Russell doesn't believe them all and gives us something more worthy next time.