Balthazar – Lawrence Durrell

Lose yourself in the thrilling political intrigue and tangled love affairs of wartime Egypt: Durrell“s epic modern classic, introduced by Alaa Al Aswany (bestselling author of The Yacoubian Building).Every interpretation of reality is based upon a unique position …As the threat of world war looms over the city of Alexandria, an exiled Anglo-Irish schoolteacher unravels his erotic obsession with two women: Melissa, a fragile dancer, and Justine, a glamorous married Egyptian woman. Through conversations with Balthazar, a doctor and mystic, these intricate love affairs are cast in an ominous, sinister new light, as his private fixations become entangled with a mysterious murder plot … One of the twentieth century’s greatest masterpieces, rich in political and sexual intrigue, Lawrence Durrell’s ‘investigation of modern love’ in the Alexandria Quartet set the world alight. Published in 1958, a year after the sensational Justine, the kaleidoscopic Balthazar burns just as brightly today.“Legendary … Casts a spell … A fine storyteller. Reader, watch out!“ Jan Morris, Guardian“A brave and brazen work … Lush and grandiose.“ Independent “One of the very best novelists of our time … [such] beauty.“ New York Times Book ReviewVOLUME TWO OF LAWRENCE DURRELL“S ALEXANDRIA QUARTET