The Alexandria Semaphore Author:Robert Sole Maxime Touta was only thirteen when, in 1863, he watched a young officer being publicly degraded in a square in Alexandria. The scene marked the beginning of an extraordinary period in Egypt, then governed by the European puppet ruler, Khedive Ismail, a man who dreamed of turning Cairo into a new Paris and who promoted one of the great engineeri... more »ng feats in world history, the construction of the Suez Canal. Maxime, the narrator of this compelling novel, grew up against the background of an Egypt that was in many ways still Ottoman in style, but which was increasingly prey to British and French colonial rivalry. The Alexandria Semaphore is at once a tender love story, an enthralling family saga, and an authentic reconstruction of a romantic and dangerous period in recent Egyptian history.« less