Justine

This first novel of The Alexandria Quartet is narrated by Darley, a schoolteacher and writer looking back on interwar Alexandria. He reconstructs his affair with Justine Hosnani, the restless Jewish wife of the Coptic banker Nessim, and his earlier attachment to the dancer Melissa. Around them move the writer Pursewarden, the painter Clea, and a city of cafes, islands, and political rumor. Darley tries to understand Justine's secrecy and Nessim's concealed purposes by assembling memory, diaries, and other people's versions. The book is one narrator's account of love and conspiracy in a cosmopolitan port, later recast from other angles in the companion volumes.

Three-quarter bound in orange cloth with photo pictorial front board. Dark brown endpapers and slipcase.