‘A master at creating and handling tension … I was fascinated from the start.’ Wilbur Smith

David Mountolive, a young English diplomat, has been obsessed with Egypt ever since a youthful love affair. Returning to Alexandria as British Ambassador just before World War Two, he unravels an intricate political and religious conspiracy – one that connects a web of wildly different characters, including an exiled schoolteacher and glamorous Egyptian couple. Mountolive gradually exposes the sinister underbelly of these tangled relationships, their deceptions and betrayals mirroring the explosive turmoil of the modern Middle East – and the result is Durrell’s most cinematic masterpiece.

‘Astonishing … A work of splendid craft and troubling veracity.’ New York Times Book Review

‘A masterpiece … Don’t be fooled by the richness of the prose, the depth of the passions … Wicked and funny.’ Guardian

‘Dazzlingly exuberant in style and vision, reckless in ambition, wonderfully prolific in invention … Superb.’ Observer

VOLUME THREE OF LAWRENCE DURRELL’S ALEXANDRIA QUARTET

An expat schoolteacher has spent years in exile reflecting on his turmoiled love affair with Justine, a glamorous Egyptian wife. Returning to wartime Alexandria, he finds that his old friends have suffered dramatic changes of body, mind, and fortune – and someone whom he has never really known wishes to see him. His affair with Clea, a bisexual artist, not only changes the lovers, but transforms the dead, forever – and heralds a new beginning, just as Lawrence Durrell’s intoxicating masterpiece ends.

‘Durrell has written about a dozen real love stories, entwined them, and explored them with a truly Proustian ferocity … Superb.’ Observer

‘Lushly beautiful … His style glows … One of the most important works of our time.’ New York Times Book Review

‘It is hard now to recapture the impact half a century ago of these novels’ heat, luxuriance and profanity [or] his descriptions of Alexandria – its beauty, cruelty, menace, mystery, decadence ….’ Spectator

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