Desiring Cairo

Desiring Cairo
Louisa Young

The sparky, funny sequel to Louisa Young’s acclaimed first novel of belly-dancing, motorbikes and single-parenthood.Angeline Gower, ex-bellydancer, ex-biker, single mother of a little girl who is not actually her child, is mired in problems again in this wonderful sequel.Her relationship with Harry, the lover turned cop, remains fraught, the lure of the glamorous but no good Eddie hasn’t gone away. And there is yet another element complicating things know – the seductive and mysterious Sa’id. With Angeline older and a little wiser, Louisa Young weaves a tale that is richer, sexier and more moving than ‘Baby Love’, while remaining just as exciting. Shifting between Shepherd’s Bush and Cairo, full of the contrasts between the West and the Middle East, ‘Desiring Cairo’ thrills and enthralls while at the same time making us think and feel deeply about the love between mother and child, man and woman, friend and friend.Louisa Young has skilfully written this so that it is equally enjoyable read on its own, or as part of the trilogy that starts with ‘Baby Love’ and ends with ‘Tree of Pearls’.

DESIRING CAIRO

The Angeline Gower Trilogy

Louisa Young

Copyright (#u4c205b74-8012-598e-bbb0-a212cb33e034)

The Borough Press

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk (http://www.harpercollins.co.uk)

Published by The Borough Press 2015

First published by Flamingo, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1999

Copyright © Louisa Young 1999

Louisa Young asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

Cover images © Shutterstock.com (http://Shutterstock.com)

Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780007577996

Ebook Edition © 2015 ISBN: 9780007397013

Version: 2015-09-07

Praise for The Angeline Gower Trilogy: (#u4c205b74-8012-598e-bbb0-a212cb33e034)

‘Funny, sexy and tender’ ESTHER FREUD

‘Spectacularly worth reading’ The Times

‘A stylishly literate thriller’ Marie Claire

‘You will keep coming back to this book when you should be doing something else’ LOUIS DE BERNIÈRES

‘Exciting, compelling and tense’ Time Out

‘Funny and scary. In writing honestly and unsentimentally, Young celebrates the unequivocal nature of parental love with verve and style’ Mail on Sunday

‘Wry, perky, entertaining’ Observer

‘Engaging, wise-cracking, likeable, brilliantly sustained … funny, humane and utterly readable’ Good Housekeeping

Dedication (#u4c205b74-8012-598e-bbb0-a212cb33e034)

For Isabel Adomakoh Young, the lovely daughter

‘I do believe that, with all its drawbacks, Egypt is the most interesting and convenient country that a lady can travel over’

ELIOT WARBURTON, 1845

Contents

Cover (#u7cae2adc-c738-5a82-9089-8047a1e544b9)

Title Page (#u6a5fb39e-bb55-5abd-9076-c744886d1f9d)

Copyright

Praise

Dedication

Epigraph (#u4a874807-e007-5e9f-af1c-45f768ad7de1)

Introduction

Chapter One: Hakim

Chapter Two: Luxor

Chapter Three: Talking about Gary Cooper

Chapter Four: Hakim’s Business, Harry’s News

Chapter Five: Next

Chapter Six: Tell Mama