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whether his mother is alive. He imagines that Elie is still alive, or that he is watching the burial at sea. He meets an
Egyptian Jew, Leah, who is married and repels his attentions though apparently she later becomes his lover and develops an obsession for him. Townrow walks through scenes of mob unrest, is arrested as a spy, and watches bloody gunfights between Egyptian and British troops with bemused detachment. He imagines digging up Elie's grave to make certain he is really dead, then apparently actually does so.
183:, Townrow makes a joke about marrying Mrs Khoury for her money to an immigration officer, which leads to him being interrogated. He is kept in a cell and is released once his train has departed. Townrow doesn't go straightaway to see Mrs Khoury when he arrives in Port Said, instead opting to stay in a hotel. Here he considers having no one who really cares about him in his life.
206:
After the discussion with
Christous and Townrow's subsequent blackout, the novel becomes much more dream-like and at times surreal, with Townrow a very unreliable narrator who cannot remember his nationality (though he asserts that he is Irish as part of a scam he tries to run on Mrs Khoury) nor
186:
Townrow visits a bar he used to frequent while serving here as a sergeant. The owner of the bar, Christous, recognises him and kicks out his clientele for some privacy. Townrow asks about Elie's death. Christous tells him that Mrs Khoury, with great difficulty, took her husband's body back to
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At the end of the novel, though it is uncertain how much of what was related actually took place or how much was a fever or drunken dream, Townrow comes to believe that a citizen is not responsible for the morality of his government and has only himself and his own actions to answer for.
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203:'s. Townrow is not sure whether to believe any of this and gets so drunk he blacks out. He awakens naked and alone, and is attacked by a passing camel-driver, causing his head and one eye to be bandaged for most of the remainder of the novel.
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Townrow is a fund distributor stealing from the fund he is in charge of. He is contacted by the widow of an old friend, Elie Khoury. They had met ten years previously, in 1946, in
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in 2008 in the "Faber Finds" line, in 2011 as paperback and in 2018.
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after he had been thrown from a horse in front of the
Khourys'
133:. Its chief claim to fame is that in 1969 it won the inaugural
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First edition dustjacket; design reused in 2018 with added text
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176:. The discussion ends on a friendly note.
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191:to be buried. Because of her actions,
301:List of winners and nominated authors
7:
14:
1148:A Brief History of Seven Killings
1130:The Narrow Road to the Deep North
1295:The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida
897:True History of the Kelly Gang
1:
595:Life & Times of Michael K
168:journalist who accuses the
164:where he converses with an
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1337:Booker Prize-winning works
322:International Booker Prize
781:How Late It Was, How Late
295:
229:"Something to Answer For"
26:
16:1968 novel by P. H. Newby
22:Something to Answer For
1357:Faber & Faber books
975:The Inheritance of Loss
826:The God of Small Things
424:The Siege of Krishnapur
346:Something to Answer For
122:Something to Answer For
1076:The Sense of an Ending
685:The Remains of the Day
308:The Best of the Booker
172:of failing to prevent
129:by the English writer
766:Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
315:The Golden Man Booker
1184:Lincoln in the Bardo
1058:The Finkler Question
459:Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1352:Novels set in Egypt
1347:1968 British novels
1290:Shehan Karunatilaka
1225:Bernardine Evaristo
1094:Bring Up the Bodies
741:The English Patient
565:Midnight's Children
519:Penelope Fitzgerald
439:The Conservationist
23:
1230:Girl, Woman, Other
942:The Line of Beauty
882:The Blind Assassin
361:The Elected Member
287:Recipients of the
170:British government
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937:Alan Hollinghurst
927:Vernon God Little
726:The Famished Road
670:Oscar and Lucinda
444:Stanley Middleton
249:978-0-571-34827-5
233:Faber & Faber
139:Faber & Faber
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236:. Retrieved
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1277:The Promise
1166:The Sellout
1161:Paul Beatty
970:Kiran Desai
907:Yann Martel
892:Peter Carey
811:Last Orders
761:Roddy Doyle
706:A. S. Byatt
665:Peter Carey
404:John Berger
341:P. H. Newby
131:P. H. Newby
43:P. H. Newby
1331:Categories
1308:Paul Lynch
1197:Anna Burns
922:DBC Pierre
912:Life of Pi
836:Ian McEwan
791:Pat Barker
711:Possession
655:Moon Tiger
620:Keri Hulme
494:Staying On
489:Paul Scott
215:References
197:Suez Canal
125:is a 1968
1029:Wolf Hall
841:Amsterdam
195:took the
155:beach hut
151:Port Said
57:Publisher
856:Disgrace
721:Ben Okri
524:Offshore
379:Troubles
238:1 August
113:65294405
49:Language
1202:Milkman
957:The Sea
479:Saville
449:Holiday
332:1969–79
189:Lebanon
166:Israeli
52:English
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127:novel
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162:Rome
145:Plot
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