In 1907, sixteen-year-old Julia Hamilton, happy to accompany her diplomat father on a tour of the Ottoman-controlled cities of Istambul, Damascus, Palmyra, and Aleppo, soon finds the journey increasingly hazardous as she begins to uncover her father's true mission and the secret motivations of the other travelers in their group.

"As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the 70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children, and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she's forced...

A novelist with the rare ability to grant us entree to whispered-about realms of privilege and glamour, William Kinsolving now tells the story of a remarkable woman who fights to triumph over the ambitious men who dominate foreign affairs. Through her eyes we are given a candid, insider's account of the intrigue-filled game of diplomacy as it is played in exciting international capitals and dangerous trouble spots - a game in which the rules are constantly...

A true story of a trailblazing woman who found freedom in the faraway world of the Middle East. Gertrude Bell chafes against the stifling rigidity of life in turn-of-the-century England, leaving it behind for a chance to travel to Tehran. So begins her lifelong adventure across the Arab world, a journey marked by danger, a passionate affair with a British officer, and an encounter with the legendary T.E. Lawrence.