- Hardcover: 320 pages
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC (3 May 2010)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0747598975
- ISBN-13: 978-0747598978
- Product Dimensions: 21.8 x 13.6 x 3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 923,153 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Mistress of Abha
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More About the Author
Product Description
Review
PRAISE FOR THE TWO POUND TRAM: 'Very occasionally one comes across a book which, in its unexpected delights, inspires one to leap about wild with praise, and rush out to buy copies for friends. This first work by William Newton, retired doctor, will surely have this effect on many readers ... Newton is a wonderful find, it's my book of the year and I shall give it to everyone for Christmas' Spectator 'I predict that this book will become something of a cult. There is an obvious surface charm to the elegant writing, whimsical story and delightfully Shell-Guide-style jacket. But beneath that it has enough of the unexpected, the unexplained, even the weird, to go on haunting the reader's imagination long after he has put the book down' Country Life 'The Two Pound Tram deserves to be a classic, as much beloved by grandparents as by grandchildren and every generation in between. Don't miss it' Saga 'Enchanting' Guardian
Product Description
The year is 1930 and the British are in Arabia. Ivor Willoughby, a young Orientalist, embarks on an ambitious quest to find his father, an officer abroad with the British Army. In all of Ivor's life, Robert has returned to England only once, bedraggled and wild-eyed with tales of As'ir, a land of Sheikhs and white-turbaned bandits, where he is fighting alongside Captain Lawrence and is known by the name 'Ullobi'. After that single meeting which left such a mark on his son, Robert is never heard from again. Ten years on, Ivor must find out what became of him. So he sets out on the journey of a lifetime. Travelling to Cairo to join the Locust Bureau, then circuitously to Abha, Yemen, and along the Red Sea coast, Ivor searches everywhere for clues about Ullobi, but no one appears to remember him. Or perhaps they are afraid to admit to it. Along the way Ivor hears whispers of a woman warrior called Na'ema who was once a slave. Her story seems tantalizingly connected with his father's, and Ivor finds himself in the misty heights of Ayinah looking for an Abyssinian seer who was carried on the same slave ship as Na'ema in 1914 and might unlock the mystery. In this dazzling epic, William Newton brings to life Lawrence's Arabia in fascinating and vivid detail. "The Mistress of Abha" is a tale of Empire, of wild daring, of devastating love and an utterly surprising heroine.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I liked this book despite its flaws, I think mainly because I looked up the author and read he had only written 2 books - so for him this was his tour de force, the book he had to get out. The storyline is rather simple, the son of an army officer who fought with Lawrence (of Arabia) fame in the first world war has not been seen for a good 10 years. Following in the family footsteps and a military career he determines to follow his father into the orient - and find him - along the way he has many adventures in the arabian peninsula of the 1920s-30s where Ibn Saud is slowly installing his brand of Islam and he meets traders, and, slaves. Its an old fashioned colonial tale of military empire man of the stiff upper lip variety, being drawn into the orient which was then glamourous and exotic and full of things to be discovered.
Of course all that is a cliche of the westerner and the sand and dust of arabia. This is not a perfect book by any means, at times its slow and the writing stuffy, there is a lot of descriptions of what I found to be rather boring battles. Then maybe the author meant the text to follow the stuffy, constricted society of the time or perhaps he was just not a great author or maybe both. But there were parts where he is telling one of many inter-lapping stories that I was really sucked into this rather strange world and saw a Saudi Arabia somewhat different to the forbidden one at least to westerners that exists now.
There are many things to critize and I doubt its not everyones cup of tea, but, I take my hat off to the author for his imagination and describing a world both in the west and I suspect in the east that no longer exists.
Of course all that is a cliche of the westerner and the sand and dust of arabia. This is not a perfect book by any means, at times its slow and the writing stuffy, there is a lot of descriptions of what I found to be rather boring battles. Then maybe the author meant the text to follow the stuffy, constricted society of the time or perhaps he was just not a great author or maybe both. But there were parts where he is telling one of many inter-lapping stories that I was really sucked into this rather strange world and saw a Saudi Arabia somewhat different to the forbidden one at least to westerners that exists now.
There are many things to critize and I doubt its not everyones cup of tea, but, I take my hat off to the author for his imagination and describing a world both in the west and I suspect in the east that no longer exists.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
In sands of Arabia -- all cliches included
27 Dec 2010
Format:Paperback
I'm giving this novel a generous three stars -- it's really a two and a half. It tells the story of a British soldier who goes to fight with Lawrence of Arabia in the First World War and then stays on to fight in the various wars in the Arabian Peninsula which ended up with the Saudis taking over. A few years later, his son goes to discover what became of his disappeared father.
The plot unfolds in a series of stories from various people along the way. We meet noble sheiks and beautiful, dusky harem slaves -- no cliche is omitted. We are deep in the territory of "orientalism" here. One former slave becomes a kind of earth mother to the narrator and tells her story over several months. Then we meet the disappeared officer himself in a series of hidden letters that suddenly come to light.
But the real problem with this book is that none of the characters has an authentic narrative voice. They all do things -- but the characters are paper thin. They all sound the same and feel the same. Consequently, the reader is not invested in them as real, flesh-and-blood characters.
The author has no doubt done a prestigious amount of research about the various tribes of Arabia and the wars that led to the country's unification under the stultifying rule of the al Saud family. He evidently came to novel-writing late in life but his talent as a storyteller did not really match his depth of knowledge of the setting.
The plot unfolds in a series of stories from various people along the way. We meet noble sheiks and beautiful, dusky harem slaves -- no cliche is omitted. We are deep in the territory of "orientalism" here. One former slave becomes a kind of earth mother to the narrator and tells her story over several months. Then we meet the disappeared officer himself in a series of hidden letters that suddenly come to light.
But the real problem with this book is that none of the characters has an authentic narrative voice. They all do things -- but the characters are paper thin. They all sound the same and feel the same. Consequently, the reader is not invested in them as real, flesh-and-blood characters.
The author has no doubt done a prestigious amount of research about the various tribes of Arabia and the wars that led to the country's unification under the stultifying rule of the al Saud family. He evidently came to novel-writing late in life but his talent as a storyteller did not really match his depth of knowledge of the setting.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
British colonialist is swept up in romantic reverie for the Arabia of his father's tales and follows his footsteps.
31 Mar 2011
Format:Paperback
Love/Hate?: Meh.
Do I like the cover?: No. I mean, it is very pretty, but the novel takes place in Saudi Arabia. There is no call for a pyramid.
Review: I didn't finish this book. I read the first 100 pages or so (120, to be exact) and the last 100 pages, and I don't think I missed anything in between.
The narration has a very odd sense to it and I can't tell if it's simply Newton's style of writing or if it's an attempt at giving the narrator, Ivor Willoughby, some personality. The story is first person but Willoughby constantly comments on his own story. If he says something odd to another character, he observes it; if he does something strange, he points it out. It's slightly clunky but grows familiar as one reads on, and I found it vaguely endearing -- until it grew tiresome.
I think the intent is for this to be a kind of epic saga -- son searching for his father - but I found it awkward and clunky and slow. There's a lot of politics and a lot of skirmishes but the narration and storyline just bored me to no end. And, ultimately, the story at it's root was just so unappealing to me. I'm not a huge fan of infidelity especially when it's part of the hero's grand romance; that, coupled with the very disturbing exoticization of the slaves, concubines, and other women in this book, left me feeling pretty gross. I'm all for a good cross-cultural romance, but when a married English officer takes on a second wife because he's all Arab 'at heart' and hates his life back in England, I find that selfish, not romantic. The narrator is very pro-Empire and colonialisation, which is accurate for the setting of the story (pre WWII, post-Lawrence of Arabia), but as a result, it's a mixture of white man's burden and the noble savage motif. It also feels a bit like cheap shorthand to create an epic quality to this story. In the end, the awkward style kept me from being fully pulled in and what I did absorb turned me off.
Do I like the cover?: No. I mean, it is very pretty, but the novel takes place in Saudi Arabia. There is no call for a pyramid.
Review: I didn't finish this book. I read the first 100 pages or so (120, to be exact) and the last 100 pages, and I don't think I missed anything in between.
The narration has a very odd sense to it and I can't tell if it's simply Newton's style of writing or if it's an attempt at giving the narrator, Ivor Willoughby, some personality. The story is first person but Willoughby constantly comments on his own story. If he says something odd to another character, he observes it; if he does something strange, he points it out. It's slightly clunky but grows familiar as one reads on, and I found it vaguely endearing -- until it grew tiresome.
I think the intent is for this to be a kind of epic saga -- son searching for his father - but I found it awkward and clunky and slow. There's a lot of politics and a lot of skirmishes but the narration and storyline just bored me to no end. And, ultimately, the story at it's root was just so unappealing to me. I'm not a huge fan of infidelity especially when it's part of the hero's grand romance; that, coupled with the very disturbing exoticization of the slaves, concubines, and other women in this book, left me feeling pretty gross. I'm all for a good cross-cultural romance, but when a married English officer takes on a second wife because he's all Arab 'at heart' and hates his life back in England, I find that selfish, not romantic. The narrator is very pro-Empire and colonialisation, which is accurate for the setting of the story (pre WWII, post-Lawrence of Arabia), but as a result, it's a mixture of white man's burden and the noble savage motif. It also feels a bit like cheap shorthand to create an epic quality to this story. In the end, the awkward style kept me from being fully pulled in and what I did absorb turned me off.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
The Mystery of Abha
23 Oct 2010
Format:Paperback
The Mistress of Abha is written by William Newton, who died earlier this year. Newton spent his professional career as a doctor and started writing novels in his retirement. The Mistress of Abha is his second published novel.
This novel is set in 1930's Arabia. Ivor Willoughby has decided to search for his long lost father. He knows that his father left his mother shortly after his birth to serve with the British in Arabia. He returned for one brief visit when Ivor was a teenager and then disappeared again. Ivor is now an adult and ready to solve the mystery of his father.
The book begins slowly as it builds momentum for Ivor's adventure in Arabia but it does hold the promise of eventual thrills. I read an article by a reader who explained that she always gave a boring book fifty pages before deciding to put it down, and it seemed that in this case right at page fifty the book suddenly got interesting and exciting.
While in Arabia, Ivor meets with great danger, hears stories of tribal battles, the slave trade, love and intrigue amidst the harems, and eventually uncovers the mystery surrounding the tales of his father--Ullobi. Arabia is definitely not a dull place. Newton writes historical detail and plot well. However, what the book lacks is passion. Overall, I enjoyed The Mistress of Abha and stayed up late to finish it last night.
This novel is set in 1930's Arabia. Ivor Willoughby has decided to search for his long lost father. He knows that his father left his mother shortly after his birth to serve with the British in Arabia. He returned for one brief visit when Ivor was a teenager and then disappeared again. Ivor is now an adult and ready to solve the mystery of his father.
The book begins slowly as it builds momentum for Ivor's adventure in Arabia but it does hold the promise of eventual thrills. I read an article by a reader who explained that she always gave a boring book fifty pages before deciding to put it down, and it seemed that in this case right at page fifty the book suddenly got interesting and exciting.
While in Arabia, Ivor meets with great danger, hears stories of tribal battles, the slave trade, love and intrigue amidst the harems, and eventually uncovers the mystery surrounding the tales of his father--Ullobi. Arabia is definitely not a dull place. Newton writes historical detail and plot well. However, what the book lacks is passion. Overall, I enjoyed The Mistress of Abha and stayed up late to finish it last night.
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