Goodreads asked Julia Herdman:

What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Julia Herdman Hi, although the weather is anything but summery at the moment my summer read is Iris and Ruby by Rosie Thomas. This is a richly textured had story of love and loss and distance between three generations of one family. The unexpected arrival of her will fall teenage granddaughter, Ruby, brings life and disorder to 82 year old Iris Black's old house in Cairo. Ruby, driven by her fraught relationship with her own mother to run away from England, is seeking refuge with the grandmother she hasn't seen for years. An unlikely bond develops between them, as Ruby helps Iris to record her fading memories of the glittering, cosmopolitan Cairo of the World War 2 and of her own true love for the enigmatic Captain Xan Molyneaux whom she lost to the ravages of the conflict.

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