Duke of Egypt

Duke of Egypt is the story of the love between Joseph Plato, a gypsy, and Lucie, a Dutch horse-breeder. Lucie is tied to the farm; for Joseph, the whole of Europe is his home.

Each spring Joseph sets out in the hope of catching up with his scattered and constantly moving relatives. He returns in the autumn to tell an enraptured Lucie of his travels; and as he relates the events of his summers to her, the strange story of his ancestors - the displaced and marginalized people of Europe - is gradually revealed. The tale harks back to the persecution of the gypsies during the Second World War, and moving portrays the tragedy of those who cannot find a place in the modern world.

A narrative tour de force, Duke of Egypt confirms Margriet de Moor as one of Europe's finest writers.

`Duke of Egypt is romantic . . . a tale which is part love story, part historical prose poem, and which shifts tone and pace and slides between fact and fiction with lyrical daring' Daily Telegraph

`A novel of artistic distinction and moral power, qualities well served by a translation which is buoyant and varied in idiom' Times Literary Supplement