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 Review

VOLUME TWO OF LAWRENCE DURRELL’S ALEXANDRIA QUARTET