DREAMERS OF THE DAY
Mary Doria Russell
Random House
Historical Fiction
ISBN: 9781400064717

Mary Doria Russell brings us a historical novel that takes place during the momentous Cairo Peace Conference of 1920, a three-day event that will change the world as we know it today. Three individuals --- the young Winston Churchill, then a mid-level cabinet officer; world traveler Lady Gertrude Bell; and Colonel T. E. Lawrence --- will carve Mesopotamia into Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Israel following the defeat of Germany during the Great War, ironically called the “war to end all wars.”

The world was still staggering from the ravages of World War I and the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 that had cost millions of human lives. Agnes Shanklin, a single Ohio schoolteacher, had nursed her extended family through two waves of the deadly Spanish flu, only to lose them one by one. Still recovering from the effects of her own illness, Agnes settles her family affairs and with a modest inheritance decides to follow through on a suggestion by her late sister to visit Egypt and the Holy Land. Her sister, a missionary in Palestine, had written glowingly of good friend Neddy Lawrence and had urged Agnes to look him up if she ever got to the Middle East. Agnes signs on to a Cook’s Tour and embarks on the long voyage with her faithful companion, a long-haired dachshund named Rosie, to trace the steps her late sister and family had followed.

Upon her arrival in Cairo, Agnes is swept up in street rioting by waves of protestors against Churchill. She was booked into the same hotel as the convening dignitaries but is unceremoniously and noisily ejected because of Rosie. Colonel Lawrence, who recognizes her from her sister’s description, comes to her rescue and escorts her to a suitable hotel across the Nile River. There she meets Karl Weilbacher, a charming German spy, also in Cairo for the conference. Observing that Lawrence has taken Agnes under his wing, Weilbacher attaches himself to her through the affections of her dog.

Mary Doria Russell began her career as a paleontologist with a firm grasp of human relationships and theology, themes that run through her works of fiction. Her fans will remember the hauntingly beautiful story of THE SPARROW, her award-winning bestselling futuristic first novel. She wrote a sequel, CHILDREN OF GOD, and a third novel, A THREAD OF GRACE. 

Here, Russell weaves a story of world-altering politics and history as seen through the eyes of the naïve, sheltered 40-year-old spinster. DREAMERS OF THE DAY is at once a fascinating and romantic travelogue and a spiritually challenging journey of self-discovery, especially in Jerusalem where Agnes experiences the clash of cultures in the ancient city.

    --- Reviewed by Roz Shea

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