Balthazar: Introduced by Alaa Al Aswany

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 Review

VOLUME TWO OF LAWRENCE DURRELL’S ALEXANDRIA QUARTET