The Twelve Rooms of the Nile

By Enid Shomer

A captivating debut that imagines a passionate friendship between Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert when they were exploring the Nile in 1849.

Before she became the nineteenth-century's heroine, before he had written a word of Madame Bovary, Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert traveled up the Nile at the same time. In reality, they never met. But in The Twelve Rooms of the Nile, they ignite a friendship marked by intelligence, humour, and a ravishing tenderness that will alter both their destinies.

On the surface, Nightingale and Flaubert have little in common. She is a woman with radical ideas about society and God, naive in the ways of men. He is a notorious womanizer, involved with innumerable prostitutes. But both are at painful crossroads in their lives and burn with unfulfilled ambition. In Shomer's deft hands, the two unlikely soulmates come together to share their darkest torments and fervent hopes. Brimming with adventure and the sparkling sensibilities of the two travellers, this mesmerizing debut novel offers a luminous combination of gorgeous prose and wild imagination, all of it coloured by the opulent tapestry of mid-nineteenth century Egypt.

'A tour de force of twenty-first century storytelling' Gillian Gill, author of Nightingales

'Immensely satisfying ... deftly imagined' Susanna Moore, author ofThe Big Girls

'The Twelve Rooms of the Nilepromises ... heat and mud aplenty in an atmospheric imagining of the friendship that grew between Florence Nightingale and Gustave Flaubert on their 1849 Nile journey' - Sunday Telegraph

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Aug 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780857207807

Enid Shomer

Enid Shomer won the Iowa Fiction Prize for her first collection of stories and the Florida Gold Medal for her second. She is also the author of four books of poetry. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The Paris Review, and many other publications. She lives in Tampa, Florida.

Reviews for The Twelve Rooms of the Nile

[marthahuntley · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I didn't like it for most of the book - nothing happened until page 150! and again for many more pages...but when I got to the end, I liked it very much. It seems to me that Shomer is writing about the mystery of having a true calling -- which both Florence Nightingale and Gutave Flaubert did. No matter where it comes from, or the person called, comes from, it will assert itself. This reminds me of the book, Code of the Soul, which explains all this. The book is descriptive, and surprising, and does succeed in bringing to light the advantages and the drawbacks of wealth which makes exotic travel possible, but can cut one off from great satisfactions of serving and honest work as well. The discrepancies of the Victorian mind and culture are very much in evidence in this book. And it will be a hard one to forget. So although for the greater part of it, I can't say I enjoyed reading it, I'm glad I did, and have to give it four stars.

[beamis12 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I finished this a couple of days ago but I really=y needed to think before I wrote a review. I loved her writing, elegant and lush, especially when talking about the scenery, which was beautiful. Loved the history behind this, she actually used letters and journals from both of these well known people. Both are at loose ends and feel like they are not getting on with their lives the way they have envisioned them, Flaubert has written his first novel but his friends tell him it terrible and will never be published, Florence's family despaired over her continuing projects to help the unfortunate, wanting her to learn embroidery and get a husband. I was particularly drawn to the parts that featured Miss Nightingale, not as attracted to those featuring Flaubert. It is fact that they were both traveling the Nile at the same time, but this very inventive author imagines a friendship between the two, one bordering on near intimacy. This I had a bit of a problem with, but that may be simply because I knew it to be not true. That the author makes the reader think it could have been possible is all to her credit. Anyway I did love reading about these two well known people and have always loved reading about the culture and history of Egypt.