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Advanced Review
Issue: June 1, 2012
The Twelve Rooms of the Nile.
 Shomer, Enid (Author) Jul 2012. 
450 p. Simon & Schuster, hardcover, $26.00. (9781451642964).

Shomer’s exquisite debut is an intellectual adventure through mid-nineteenth-century Egypt as experienced by two dissimilar people sitting on the cusp of greatness, though neither one knows that. Prim, earnest Florence Nightingale yearns to do good works, but her sex and disapproving family constrain her exuberant curiosity. Gustave Flaubert, a devoted cynic, loses himself in debauchery while seeking literary inspiration. Both traveled up the Nile in 1850, although they probably never met in real life. From this grain of historical plausibility emerges a captivating story about close friendship and all the pleasures and complications of understanding another human being. As their parties follow a similar route, from the temples at Abu Simbel to Philae and other sites, they develop a tender bond, and they even take a daring overland trek together (with chaperones, of course). Their encounters with ancient monuments and the unfamiliar culture enhance their psychological journeys. Flo’s awkward relationship with her unadventurous maid, as significant as hers with Gustave, authentically shows the limitations of her privileged Victorian background. The superb characterizations, poignant observations on the Egyptian religion, and depictions of the land’s ethereal beauty—all perfectly interwoven—are rendered in memorable language that excites and enriches the mind.

— Sarah Johnson