• 104 pages

• 6 x 9

• Softcover

• ISBN 978-1949248-654

• Copyright 2023

By Frank Kersnowski

At the end of The Alexandria Quartet, Lawrence Durrell wrote: “‘Once upon a time…’ I felt as if the whole universe had given me a nudge!” Nessim is my nudged response to Lawrence Durrell’s iconic four novels. They tell of a plot by Coptic Christians to secure a sanctuary in Moslem-governed Egypt, which will share dominion with the new Jewish state. Continuing this historical circumstance, Nessim is peopled with variants of Durrell’s European flotsam in the city they call Alex on the wrong side of the Med. The native Egyptians in my fictional world have revelations added about character and circumstance. In Alexandria, the Europeans find an opulent and corrupt society and fail to avoid the venal traps of lust, love, and conspiracy. At the center is the Coptic plot. In The Alexandria Quartet, Nessim is the enigmatic central figure to all that happens, yet as Durrell presents him, he is made of loose strings tied into a Gordian knot. Unlike Alexander, I chose to unravel, not cut, the knot and portray a man of troubling complexity from his Savile Row suit to his Jermyn Street shoes.