Have Sippy Will Travel

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I recently finished reading the book At the Crossroad. For me, it was a real page turner, hard to put down, with engaging characters and a good storyline. Perhaps I should stay “story-lines”, as the book follows 4 people. All four are quite different from each other, yet their lives are intertwined deeply. None of their lives go as planned or as you think they would- which honestly kept the book very interesting. It also seemed realistic to me, no wild and crazy plots that made it seem implausible, and you find yourself genuinely interested in the characters and wanting the best outcomes for them.

The outcomes are not what you would expect, the lives take them where you would not necessarily think they would- which is one of the reasons the book was so interesting. Set at a time of military unrest, which seeps into the book but is not it’s major theme, the characters fight to find themselves, their place in the world, and to a sense of justice and happiness in a time when those are hard to find.

Tempting though it may be- do not judge this book by it’s cover. The cover is awful, so very unprofessional and poorly done- but the book itself, the writing is good. The story is unique and compelling, you will be drawn to the characters. Ignore the cover- read the book.

I, too, was hesitant to read this book after I saw the cover. When I see shabbily done covers, it usually means “vanity press” or “self published” and that the book is going to be a hot mess, full of spelling and grammatical errors, and mostly a just the author strutting and fluffing his own feathers in print. I am not a fan of most vanity press. However- this book is NOT along those lines. It is well written, and I truly enjoyed it. This is one of those cases that you truly should not judge a book by it’s cover- literally. Normally I would not dedicate time to discussing a cover, but I know I wouldn’t have given it a second glance had I not known what a good book it was, so I wanted to mention it.

About The Book

The decisions we make at every crossroad in our lives shape our destiny. In her first novel At the Crossroad, Olfet Agrama pens a romance/adventure book filled with passion, forbidden love, faith and power – – the perfect book to give that special woman for Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day.

Released on October 21, 2014, At the Crossroad is a fiction book that takes place in the steamy, smoldering Middle East during the 1950s and 1960s and follows four main characters: a dashing medical student filled with so much promise, his beautiful but naïve girlfriend who doesn’t realize her strengths, a carefree girlfriend, whose troubled life brings happiness but also tragedy and a handsome military officer, who is strong but unwilling to bend his religious beliefs.

The story is set in Egypt after World War II. Torn between the East and West, occupied by the British and ruled by a corrupt King, it was inevitable that by 1952 the country would be convulsed by a military revolution. At the Crossroad follows four young people born during the occupation and readers learn how their lives and loves intertwine with the political events of their country. Their search for love spans a range of emotions that includes sexual tension, loneliness, elation, confusion fulfillment, humiliation and hope.

Nadia lives a Western lifestyle, but suffers the intellectual and physical repressions imposed upon her by a conservative Muslim father.
Melanie, whose mother is British, enjoys the semblance of a free and emancipated life in a world that never completely accepts her.
Sammy was brought up in England, but is still a product of the Middle East. He succeeds in escaping from the political restrictions of the military regime, but can’t escape his macho culture
Hassan is the victim of his ideals. His belief in the revolution is shattered when he perceives the corruption of the new government and when the Egyptian Army is defeated in the Suez Canal War.

Internationally recognized for her paintings and sculptures showcased at prestigious galleries in Paris, Madrid, Nagasaki, Japan and Los Angeles, Olfet Agrama decided to take a stab at writing and took nearly 10 years to complete At the Crossroad. A native of Cairo, Egypt Agrama based most of the characters in At the Crossroad on real people she knew growing up in the Middle East. The book is dedicated to brave Egyptian women who fought for women’s rights and freedom at the turn of the century.

Agrama noted women were raised to be subservient, second class citizens, governed by a strict religious ethic and a male dominated society. The situation is much worse today with the rise of the Islamic movement. Before the revolution there was a functioning parliament and several political parties competing for power. Egypt was just getting rid of the British occupation. The majority of the population was Sunni Muslim but the society was comprised of many different ethnic groups and religious entities. Some families adhered to the old traditional ways and others imitated the West. The young were confused and suffered whether they rebelled against their parents or submitted to tradition.

At the Crossroad is available in hardback, paperback and e-book through publisher Xlibris. The book is distributed through Ingram and available at Amazon.com, BN.com (Barnes & Noble) and Xlibris.com.