It's the story about 3 women on a journey of a lifetime.

First there is Harriet who is slowly fading away in London. The air is killing her. She is fascinated with ancient Egypt and gets her doctor to say that the fresh warm air would be best for her (and it is, just that was very far away.) She in her loneliness is actually something of a scholar. But at the same time she is very naive in her quest for freedom and to live.

Louisa is her mother and her secret from the past comes back to haunt them. I wished she had just told the truth, but ok the truth is hard but still. It could have saved them some trouble.

Yael is the aunt who is a devout Christian and see the plight of Egypt and wants to do something. And I did like what she did, she was no crusader, she was a humanitarian.

They are all running from something in a away and the each find something more. Well, almost.

A good story, an interesting location too. ( )

Originally posted at The Bookaholic Cat

The Sacred River by Wendy Wallace is the story of three women, mother, daughter, and aunt and their journey of self-discovery.

Harriet, the daughter, has suffered all her life of severe asthma. The weather and pollution of London hasn’t helped with her condition and she knows she doesn’t have much time left. Her doctor knows this as well and recommends her parents to take her to Egypt, where the drier and warmer climate would be beneficial for her. Her parents only wanting the best for Harriet accept and decide that Harriet will travel immediately to Egypt with her mom, Louisa and her aunt, Yael.

Their journey is not only a physical one, but also one of self-discovery, forgiveness and rebirth, where they will encounter ghosts from the past and will discover inner strengths they didn’t know they posses.

The Sacred River is an evocative historical novel set in Victorian London and Egypt. Mrs. Wallace does an excellent job bringing to life the settings and the cultural differences. Her writing is elegant and flawless. The story is striking and will stay with you days after finishing the book.

The Sacred River was my first book by Wendy Wallace but I’m sure it won’t be my last. I recommend The Sacred River to historical fiction fans. ( )

3.5 Having recently recovered by an acute exacerbation of my asthma, I found myself thinking how lucky we are now with the all the treatments available. How many must of died in the past when so little could be done. I starts reading this and found one of the main characters, Harriet a Yung woman in her early twenties had been an invalid most of her life due to her serious asthma condition. This takes place in London in 1882, and her treatment seems to consist of various tincture and tonics, though they did use menthol and eucalyptus in steaming water to rest a mist. Sort of like today's nebulizer but the treatment of last resort seemed to be chloroform.

Eventually her mother along with her aunt take her to Egypt, a place she had long been fascinated with. As an invalid books were her friends and her main area of interest was the tombs and hieroglyphics.
In Egypt all three of these women would change and only one would return home. A voice from the past would attempt to arrange thing to his advantage with a look towards revenge.

Enjoyed the time they spent Egypt, watching the women become different people. This was a time when spiritualists were very popular so the too was included in a few areas in the book. Her prose is very understated and the stories pacing is consistent. My favorite part though was reading about the Egyptian culture, and of course the tombs.

A well done and well thought out second novel. ( )

I requested an electronic ARC of Wendy Wallace’s The Sacred River because the story seemed so suited to my interests. The book opens in London, but is set primarily in British-controlled Egypt during the early 20th Century—a time of political unrest and archaeological discovery. What I hadn’t realized was that Wendy Wallace is also the author of one of my favorite books from 2012, The Painted Bridge, and I found The Sacred River every bit as enjoyable as that earlier work.

What Wallace writes is almost romance. Almost. But with more intellectual richness and with resolutions that are more complicated than the usual heterosexual coupling such books end with. Yes, in each book a man and a woman emerge as a couple, but that coupling isn’t the purpose that drives them. Instead, they come together because of shared interests or intellectual pursuits—and the women have as much substance in this area as the men do.

The Sacred River focuses on three women: a mother, Louisa; her sister-in-law, Yael; and Louisa’s daughter, Harriet. Harriet, now in her early twenties, is consumptive. She’s spent her years as an invalid studying texts on ancient Egypt, particularly hieroglyphs, and convinces her doctor to tell her parents that travel to Egypt is essential for her health. So Louisa and Harriet, accompanied by the spinster, Yael, set sail.

As it turns out, Egypt is good for Harriet’s health, easing her breathing and also giving her life a sense of purpose that it’s lacked before. Harriet is able to participate in archaeological work, sketching paintings and glyphs in a recently discovered tomb. Yael also finds a new sense of purpose in Egypt, one suited to her Christian beliefs and her inherent feminism. Louisa, meanwhile, is confronted with a past that, as a cover copy-writer might put it, she’d “prefer to keep buried.” The paths the women take are very different, giving the book a satisfying breadth of scope.

For the most part, the Egypt readers see is the Egypt of British colonialism. Egyptians themselves are background figures, helpful servants or vaguely menacing strangers. But by the book’s end, as political resistance to British rule increases, readers are given a sense of the anti-colonial struggle that will shake the country in years to come.

The Sacred River is one of those wonderful reads combining lyricism, self-realization, and historical reality in a combination that delights throughout. If you have time for a summer read, I can’t imagine a better recommendation than The Sacred River. This book will broaden your horizons as the heroines work to broaden their own. ( )

The theme of this work of historical fiction is the journey of self-discovery. Three women travel to Egypt in 1882, and their lives are changed as a result. Harriet Heron is 23; a severe asthmatic, she convinces her doctor to persuade her mother Louisa to take her to Egypt in hopes of improving her health. Harriet’s father Blundell agrees but insists that his spinster sister Yael accompany his wife and daughter.

For Harriet, the trip is not just an attempt to ease her asthma; it is also an attempt to escape the sheltered life she has lived. Her parents, especially her mother, treat her like a child and make all decisions for her. “Her dream was to see for herself the tombs of the ancient Egyptians and study the hieroglyphs carved and painted by their hands. . . . Above all, she did not wish to end her days in the room in which she’d spent almost all her life.” She is like a heron hieroglyph she sees, “its pose curious and hesitant.” Because of the life she has led, she is rather naïve, but gradually she gains independence and confidence. Unfortunately, her journey’s end is rather predictable.

Louisa experiences a rebirth, symbolized by a carved green malachite scarab she is given: “a symbol of rebirth.” It is her story that provides the most suspense in the novel. On the sea voyage to Egypt, she meets a man who knows some secret about her past and who decides “to wreak a revenge he’d awaited all his life.” She fears her husband “would cast her off. The life she had made for herself would be destroyed. Her sons would be disgraced by the knowledge of what their mother was and Harriet would see her as a stranger.”

For me, it was Yael’s transformation that was most interesting. She reluctantly undertakes the trip, but once in Egypt, she, a devout Christian, is determined to make a difference. Indeed, she finds a sense of peace and purpose. Her symbol is the lizard which in climbing perpendicular walls is “defying laws of gravity and reason. She could do things here. It was this . . . that made Egypt a foreign country.” After some time away from England, Louisa has to admit that “Her sister-in-law had a presence and authority that were never apparent before.”

The novel examines the perception of women in the Victorian Age. None of them can do anything without the approval of a man. The restrictions on women are clearly seen in Yael’s life. She is the one who has to look after her aged father: “It was unfair, Louisa thought privately, that the care of their father fell entirely to her sister-in-law. Blundell paid the bills but it was Yael who sat with the old man morning and evening, listened to his complaints, read the newspaper aloud from cover to cover.” Yet when her brother decides she must accompany Louisa and Harriet, she has no choice but to agree.

The men in the novel are not portrayed in a very positive light. Other than the romantic hero who arrives on the scene, the men tend to be shallow and self-centred. One man refuses to blame his father for seducing powerless, innocent young girls; instead, he blames the girls for seducing his father. Another man shows an unbelievable callousness towards his wife who became pregnant with his child before their marriage. A missionary refuses to help a charity until he is bribed. There are some minor male characters who prove to be chivalrous, but they are the exception.

The novel’s slow pace at the beginning may discourage some readers, but those who persist will come to know three strong women whose stories are entertaining and enlightening.

Note: I received an ARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. ( )