I admit that the premise of the 2009 Governor General's Award for fiction didn't exactly excite me: Lady Duff-Gordon, a passionate intellectual suffering from tuberculosis, moves to Egypt in the early 1860s with her maid, Sally Naldrett. The Lady hires an Egyptian dragoman (translator and guide) named Omar, a twisted love triangle develops and disaster ensues. However, to use Em's words, I decided to read The Mistress of Nothing for its "nutritional content." It far exceeded my expectations.
Kate Pullinger loosely roots her book in history but writes in Sally (about whom practically nothing is known)’s voice. As well as conjuring up visceral and exotic images of Egypt, the novel meditates on power, love and culture. The plot is engaging, the characters life-like and the themes so timeless that I often forgot the story was set 150 years ago.
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