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The Gulf Between Us
The Gulf Between Us
Jul 17, 2025 8:25 AM

Author:Geraldine Bedell

The Gulf Between Us

Pride and Prejudice in the Arabian Gulf?

For most people, being a single mother to three boys (two of them teenagers), sorting out your feelings for an ex-boyfriend who's now an international film star, pacifying an elderly father who keeps asking why you're not married, tolerating your bigoted brother, while keeping out of the way of a dismissive film producer who seems to have made a mission out of annoying you, would be quite enough of a challenge.

Annie Lester is not only trying to tackle all this - she's also doing it in the small Gulf emirate of Hawar where, in the summer of 2002, the impact of America's decision to invade Iraq is just beginning to be felt.

The Gulf Between Us is a deliciously written novel about disappointment, hope and surviving in a world of conflicting values by the author of The Handmade House and Observer journalist Geraldine Bedell.

'Politics and passion make for combustion in this acutely observed and often very funny novel' The Times

'Geraldine Bedell invites us straight into the beating heart of family life . . . a delicious novel' Meg Rosoff

Praise for The Handmade House

'A warm, funny, satisfying book' India Knight

Reviews

Revolutionary Road: The literary discovery of the year... It's as brilliantly nuanced as Updike's Rabbit sequence, and as sad as anything by Fitzgerald

—— Nick Hornby , Guardian Books of the Year

Yates is a master

—— Sebastian Faulks

A sharp sense of danger always crackles in the background whenever Anne Fine writes for adults

—— The Independent

Subtle, nuanced, beguiling and often shocking.It will smash and grab your attention right from the start

—— The Scotsman

Anne Fine's trademark bite is ever-present in this short, sharp and typically dark novel ... leavened with an acute sense of humour

—— The Daily Telegraph

Deploying both wit and daring, Fine pokes away at the cracks in our moral compass with the sharpest of pens

—— Sunday Times

A moving, passionate tale of two people in love

—— Independent

Thanks to generous helpings of corruption, promiscuity, hedonism and celebrity, the Roman Empire feels startlingly modern

—— Psychologies

Elegant, transfixing character-driven historical fiction

—— Financial Times

Her narrative moves in sensuous leisure...the landscape is exquisitely realised

—— Literary Review

Dunmore vividly recreates ancient Roman society...with intricate detail and tormented love, it's a must-read

—— Elle

A big new book by a big new writer. Well done! Harkaway describes The Gone-Away World in words that whiz and ping like bullets ricocheting off the walls of the reader's mind. He's the real thing

—— Russell Hoban

A genuine panoramic, 3D, surround-sound, total-immersion, thrill-factor ten miracle - it is the kind of book that you just don't want to end! ... Engrossing, action-packed ... Very highly recommended

—— SFRevu
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