Book Recommendations

The Visitors

By Sally Beauman

Fiction, General, Historical, Literary, Coming of Age, Sagas | 544 pages
1 recommendation

It's Death on the Nile meets Downton Abbey, as the action moves between Highclere Castle and Egypt's Valley of the Kings . . . A gripping story touching on friendship, scholarship, love and family' Daily Mail

Based on a true story of discovery, The Visitors is New York Times bestselling author Sally Beauman's brilliant recreation of the hunt for Tutankhamun's tomb in Egypt's Valley of the Kings - a dazzling blend of fact and fiction that brings to life a lost world of exploration, adventure, and danger, and the audacious men willing to sacrifice everything to find a lost treasure.

Sent abroad to Egypt in 1922 to recover from the typhoid that killed her mother, eleven-year-old Lucy is caught up in the intrigue and excitement that surrounds the obsessive hunt for Tutankhamun's tomb. As she struggles to comprehend an adult world in which those closest to her are often cold and unpredictable, Lucy longs for a friend she can love. When she meets Frances, the daughter of an American archaeologist, her life is transformed. As the two girls spy on the grown-ups and try to understand the truth behind their evasions, a lifelong bond is formed.

Haunted by the ghosts of her past, the mistakes she made and the secrets she kept, Lucy disinters her past, trying to make sense of what happened all those years ago in Cairo and the Valley of the Kings. And for the first time in her life, she comes to terms with what happened after Egypt, when Frances needed Lucy most.

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ELISABETH LETTE
31st Dec 2024
"Set predominantly in 1920's Cairo and Luxor, The Visitors brings to life the excitement and mystery of the hunt for and ultimate discovery of Tutankahmun's tomb by Howard Carter. The story is told through the wide-eyed innocence and curiosity of a young girl accompanying Carter's travel party, and completely transported me to the magical Valley of the Kings where I experienced my first ever Explore adventure holiday. In reading The Visitors I re-lived the sights, sounds, smells and vibrancy of the local Luxor community, re-imagined myself crossing the Nile, climbing the hills of the Valley of the Queens on donkey at sunrise, and experiencing the complete awe of entering ancient tombs and burial chambers decorated with incredible hieroglyphics. In my mind I could not only 'feel' Luxor, but I was transported in time to a bygone era of colonial luxury and experienced the highs, frustrations and incredible atmosphere and pressure in the race to discover Tutankahmun's tomb."