
Dreamers of the Day
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Ann Marie Lee
“I suppose I ought to warn you at the outset that my present circumstances are puzzling, even to me. Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won’t really understand your times until you understand mine.”
So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin’s “little story”? Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world - and of our own.
A 40-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan.
As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening. With graceful and effortless prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East through a story that brilliantly elucidates today’s headlines. Dreamers of the Day is a memorable and passionate novel.
©2008 Mary Doria Russell (P)2008 Books on TapeListeners also enjoyed...




















Critic reviews
"An instantly likable heroine whose unlikely adventures will keep readers hooked to the end." (Publishers Weekly)
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An utterly entrancing historical novel
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Interesting and Perplexing
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I do not know whether the narrator got the Cleveland accent perfectly but the accents she chose helped to draw her characters in vivid detail.
This is a very special and thoughtful book that I strongly recommend.
A Bold Book by a Daring Author
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good historical novel
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Good, but not great
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Her slightly outsider view of well known historic figures and the power plays that occur as the world moved to oil based economies is fun. Characters like Lawrence of Arabia, Churchill and his wife all weave a 20th Century world.
Her story of losing family to Spanish Flu and the Great Silence of no one discussing the flu or its effects are also familiar to the ignoring of COVID we are experiencing.
A forgotten time with impact today
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Little Big Woman
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Mommy issues detract from an otherwise good story
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Loved this book!
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes! I would recommend since it brings history to life and takes you to the beginning era of twentieth century!!!What did you like best about this story?
The history behind the story....Very interesting and cleverly written...
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