The Levantines

First published in 1961, The Levantines is a scathing portrait of expatriate life in Alexandria and the miserable bourgeois society in the years leading up to World War II.

Left an orphan, Daniela is entrusted to her grandmother, a former dancer with a controversial past. But when she dies, the girl is forced to move in with an unconventional couple that introduces her to a new political dimension. It is here that she comes of age, with Mussolini on the rise, forcing Danila’s life to be intertwined with history. A novel that conveys the complexities of the Levantine world, from the contradictions of colonialism in dissolution, to the tragedy of the World War II, told through the struggles of anti-fascists in the Middle East. It is also a coming-of-age tale as Daniela grows into a woman, longing for roots and redemption, the discovery of love’s many facets, and, above all, an indomitable drive to forge her own path to freedom.

“You must never for any reason at all yield yourself until after marriage, sometimes it does happen that a man wants just one woman and no other. But generally, men like a change, they would change every night if they could. Men are pigs; start from there and you’ll hardly ever go wrong, you’ve got to give men trouble that’s the thing to remember and men are liars. They lie about everything you know.”