Tree of Pearls - Softcover

Young, Louisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002261693 ISBN 13: 9780002261692

Publisher: Flamingo, 2000

Synopsis

Scintillating comic-romantic thriller, a finale to Louisa’s fab Egyptian trilogy: what life – and which man – will Angeline choose?

The final volume in the Angeline Gower trilogy, following Baby Love and Desiring Cairo.

Our angel is back. Angeline Gower is back home in Britain, back safe, back in her own bath. Right on cue, that’s when trouble arrives, back for another bout with her. But this time she’s going to see it off for good...

There’s trouble in the form of her nemesis, her Russian roulette – wiseguy wideboy Eddie: he’s on the loose again, and who would the police send out to Egypt to trace him if not Evangeline. Then there’s trouble of another more painful, more joyful sort altogether: the trouble she has choosing between safe, solid, sensitive Harry, the father of her child, and hot, haughty, harmonious Sa’id, the father of her child. So, out among the sensuous wonders of Luxor, on the mobile and on the hoof, our angel shimmies and swerves with all her ex-belly dancer’s supple style through a series of emotional chicanes. Now and again, in a particularly tight corner, she spins off, but always regains control and surges forward to seize the life and future she deserves for those she loves and, triumphantly, for herself.

About this title

Review:

Tree of Pearls is the final instalment in the Evangeline Gower trilogy. Louisa Young's heroine is as slangy and stroppy but she has a gloriously romantic heart, something often missing from the other literary modern misses. Evangeline's tender passion embraces her daughter Lily, the five-year-old "octopus of love"; the two men in her life, mysterious tempting Sa'id and long, tall Harry, all cheekbones and louche cockiness. Evangeline, ex- belly dancer and single mother, has attitude and intelligence, and a glorious understanding of what makes life worth the living. Once again Evangeline has Eddie Bates on her case. This psychopathic villain caused strife in Desiring Cairo, and his sinister shadow once again draws her to Cairo and Luxor to sort him out once and for all. She' s accompanied by his ex-wife Chrissie, and her own romantic dilemmas: Harry or Sa'id, Sa'id or Harry. The story unfolds slowly and gracefully, with a gorgeous sound track for the heartache and dangerous events: "and then, oh glorious joy, Umm Khalthoum singing Enat Omri--You Are My Life. Whenever I hear it my backbone grows longer and my foot arches, I begin to sway and to feel a mild but definite yearning for the weight of a heavily sequinned band around my hips."

Louisa Young doesn't stick to a plain old story but allows Evangeline digression and musings that shimmer and sparkle. She contemplates mythology, the colours of the landscape and the sky, the rapture in Egyptian love songs. Tree of Pearls is seductive, romantic and realistic. Evangeline Gower is redeemed by love but remains strong and independent, and in control of her own life: "I close no doors, I send love. I am not wasting away for you." --Eithne Farry

Review:

on Louisa Young’s trilogy:

‘Spectacularly worth reading’
The Times

‘Tough, tender, sexy, funny’
Esther Freud

‘Hits an all too rare note of intelligent escapism’
She

‘Streetwise and literate’
Options

‘Wry, perky, entertaining’
The Observer

‘Engaging, wise-cracking, likeable, brilliantly sustained... funny, humane and utterly readable’
Good Housekeeping

About this edition

• Publisher: Flamingo
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002261693
• ISBN 13: 9780002261692
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240