Magic for the Living (Paperback)

They say, madame, that once you have drunk the water of the Nile, you are sure to come back.' Harriet Heron's life is almost over before it has even begun. At just twenty-three years of age, she is an invalid, overprotected and recluse. Before it is too late, she must escape London's fog in favour of somewhere she can breathe. Together with her devoted mother, Louisa, and her god-fearing aunt, Yael, Harriet travels to Egypt where the air is tinged with rose and gold and, for the first time, she begins to experience what it is to live. But a chance meeting on the crossing to Alexandria results in a dangerous friendship as Louisa's long-buried past returns, determined to destroy her by preying upon her daughter. As Harriet journeys towards a destiny no one could have foreseen, her aunt Yael is transformed beyond all recognition by an Egypt on the brink of revolt. Award-winning journalist and writer Wendy Wallace spins a tale of three women caught between propriety and love on a journey of cultural awakening through an exquisitely drawn Egypt.