Passage

by Colin Thubron

A short novel with a wide a long-simmering love triangle, set in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, from the Booker-longlisted novelist and travel writer.

‘She was standing at the boat’s prow. He this is how I will remember her, looking into the wind, serene. This will outlast whatever is to come.’

Kathleen lies awake in the operating theatre as she undergoes brain surgery, her husband Robert watching. Soon afterwards, the couple leave for an ill-advised holiday in Egypt, together with the third person in their marriage, Robert’s brother Alan. Each of them is aware that the tumour in Kathleen’s brain may be fatal.

For Kathleen, an actor, the trauma of her operation brings a haunting sense of the frailty of her identity. Her descent along the ancient Egyptian tomb corridors – symbols of the passage beyond death – evokes a fevered elation.

Ashraf, their Egyptian guide, is compulsively drawn to her, even as he is caught up in the conflicted politics of his country. As each character struggles with the weight of the past and the uncertainty of the future, the mounting tension resolves in delusion – and a shattering betrayal.

In taut, shimmering prose, Colin Thubron shifts among the perspectives of the four protagonists in a narrative of mesmerising scope and power.


Praise for Colin

‘One of our greatest prose writers in any genre’ William Dalyrymple, Daily Telegraph

‘From the very first sentence you know that you are in the hands of a great master’ Anthony Beevor

‘[Thubron] summons both landscape and people with nuanced sensitivity... Here is a writer at the top of his game’ Spectator

‘[An] irresistible narrative gift’ Ursula Le Guin, Guardian

‘No writer has more successfully combined the disciplines of travel writing and fiction than Colin Thubron … A master craftsman’ Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

Genres: Fiction

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 6, 2026

About the author

Colin Thubron, CBE FRSL is a Man Booker nominated British travel writer and novelist.

In 2008, The Times ranked him 45th on their list of the 50 greatest postwar British writers. He is a contributor to The New York Review of Books, The Times, The Times Literary Supplement and The New York Times. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. Thubron was appointed a CBE in the 2007 New Year Honours. He is a Fellow and, as of 2010, President of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews

[Catriona]

Interesting comparisons between Christian and ancient Egyptian afterlife. How memory and soul interconnect and differ from person to person and as time passes.
The only critique I can really give is having to really be on the ball with the fluid transitions of pov… it could be a little jarring at first but had a flow by about midway.
Another that would likely bring new thoughts when read again.

[Richard Newton]

I have only ever read Thubron’s non fiction travel writing before, which I rate highly. Well now I seem to like his fiction too.

This is a small book, but exquisitely written. You can decide what it is on - love, death, memory, cultural differences or history. Or perhaps all of this things. Rather poignant, actually more than poignant, it is sad. There is a small glimmer of hope at the end, but just a glimmer.

I did find one plot device a little expected but that did not detract from my pleasure much.

[diveintobookswithfabi]

First of all I think this is the first book I have ever read and finished before it was officially published. So thanks to Hatchards in London for that.


I‘m not really good with sad plot books, because I always feel like I can’t handle it or the endings. I do however think that it is immensely difficult to write in a way that portrays these feelings into the reader.

This story follows multiple paths of (immense) sadness all of which are depicted so openly and vulnerably that you immediately want to feel pity. Reading Thubron‘s portrayal of Alan I can only wonder if he has felt unrequited love himself, because that stuff went straight to the heart.




What I enjoyed most about this books is how fantastically it doesn’t make sense, I mean this positively. *** From here on onwards there are spoilers. ***

I mean a woman has a tumour in her brain and has an unsuccessful first operation for it. Then she wants to go to on a trip to Egypt with her husband and his younger brother. That younger brother Alan is her youth love, a fact the younger brother could just not get over, especially because she ended up with his brother Robert almost by sheer accident. I must admit reading about that development when they’re young and then finding out she married the brother almost broke me in half. Who can sustain something like that?
They then go to Egypt and Kathleen, the protagonist with the tumour, finds a new feeling of love in their tour guide Ashraf. A situation that thoroughly infuriates Alan, of course. All the while the author brilliantly develops these marriage flashbacks to illustrate how and where it went wrong between Kathleen and her cheating husband. So she finds this new glimmer of love on a last holiday trip between two surgeries to save her life, the last of which she does not survive. This all seems so absolutely random and yet when you’re reading it, it fits so well and makes so much sense to you.

This is also why the title is astonishing to me. Because it really is just a passage of a very short time frame in which the whole life of four people is displayed in a way that makes you understand. On the other hand it shows the passage of that marriage and also the passage of drifting apart. Or the passage of time, while feelings stay the same or intensify in the case of Alan. I really like the title.

I also think the chaos of Kathleen’s emotions and actions as well as that in the plot and certain situations is a very creative way to mirror the chaos she must feel in her head due to her illness.

I do not know what to think of the „whole revolution, working against the government, making plays that show criticism that locals mostly cannot grasp“-character of Ashraf. But I did think him making plays (as a fit go Kathleen‘s passion) and his political activism (as a fit to Alan’s interests) gave the story an interesting subcurrent.


Two years ago I went on a Egypt trip myself, which is partly why the plot teaser spoke to me, and I probably would have wished for a little for descriptions of (visual) impressions in a country that is so rich in colours and architecture and sounds and smells.


I can recommend this, it’s an emotional read. 4/5
Life’s short, make the most of it.

[Ryan]

Love and mortality in a beautifully crafted novella. And I normally limit my books by old Etonians to roughly one per decade.

[Marcus]

I saw this new novel reviewed in The Spectator magazine and was sufficiently intrigued by its themes to give it a go. Memory, loss, the fragile illusion of self that the brain hallucinates, it's all here. I'm glad I tracked it down.

[Nat Reader]

This book is descriptive in nature, there are various POVs the best bit is that there are woven stories lines within stories, very clever for such a short book.

There’s a touch of politics, unrequited love, a general muddling of the mind and a theme of life and death.

There is also an interesting dynamic between husband and wife, where she’ll blurt something and he has to figure out what she means. It’s interesting how Colin’s done it.

It’s also refreshing to read a short story and enjoy every page. Descriptions of Egypt are beautiful.

135pages worth reading. Very much Enjoyed the story.

[Mandi A]

First, the cover is beautiful. Second, Thubron is a year younger than my mum (ie. 87) congratulations to him for continuing to produce coherent and well-written books. I am glad this is a short novella (135 pages), it would have become self-indulgent at more length. Interestingly, his Wiki page (which is out of date, can his agent please fix this?) says that of his novels "several describe settings of enforced immobility", perhaps a direct reaction to his life where he is better known as a travel writer.

The opening scene is powerful. First question to self: how did Robert, the husband, ever become a doctor? He has no empathy whatsoever, the complete opposite of his brother Alan, the other member of this travelling trio. As a former health professional, I enjoyed Thubron pointing out how the different medical specialities might as well live on different planets - even within an expert field like neurology. Neither son seems to have taken much from growing up in country vicarages, Alan mentions boarding school and so presumably they both went away to school.

The Egypt section could have come out of a Mills & Boon novel or a beach read, sorry. I mean, it was nice to read and they visited all the main sites (sadly not the Sphinx). The guide, Ashraf, comes out with all the stuff you expect to hear, at least half of which you are never sure whether you believe. Everyone is from a poor village. Everyone is a budding revolutionary. Everyone has friends or relatives involved in dodgy activities, or do they just want to impress their comfortable Western clients? Again, Alan, a journalist, seems to have a sharper nose. As a former nurse, I kept asking myself how Kathleen could keep up with the pressures of travel and all the new impressions she was receiving with a tumour "like a white slug" in her brain.

A nice read, I was expecting more, there were some awkward moments like "huger" and "gaunter" and hieroglypics being "in" walls which an editor might have picked up. I will go back and read some of Thubron's early work.

[Jol Miskin]

Short, sharp and, in my opinion, not a page turner. A rather simple story which didn’t quite draw me in. The four key characters are believable but ultimately a tad unlikely. The act of Alan in Egypt was horrible and silly and would someone really do that? Surely not. Well it is short so give it a go but don’t expect too much.

[Daren Kearl]

For its 136 pages it packs a lot of themes and story. Just the title can mean the passage of life, crossing over, the passages in Egyptian tombs that Kathleen visits. It has unrequited love that turns sour and leads to a shocking betrayal. As Kathleen undergoes brain surgery to remove a tumour, there are explorations on memory and truth.
A good reading group title.

[Tina G]

Beautiful prose evocative of sounds, scenes & smells of Egypt, but found the characters were frozen behind glass. Wanted to love this book as have so enjoyed Colin Thubron's travel writing. This novel, however, left me only vaguely moved.

[J C Roberts]

Lovely read

Great short story, wonderful evocative read with feeling and understanding.Read in one sitting.I think I have found a new author to follow.

[6ykmapk]

3.5*

[Mark Hancock]

Simply excellent.
Absorbing and thought provoking.
A great deal is packed into the 130 or so pages.
Many images remain with me still.