Lives Of Shadows (Hardcover)

THE LIVES OF SHADOWS is my favorite Hodgson book. It's a literary romance, a ghost story, a detective story, a history and more. Set in Damascus between 1914 and 1945, THE LIVES OF SHADOWS tells the story of Englishman, Julian Beaufort and his love affair with Bait Katib, an ancient house with its history literally written on its walls.

When Julian first encounters Bait Katib it's occupied but its owners, who are elderly, agree to turn the house over to him if he only continues writing its history. The house, they believe, deserves to have its story told as much as does any living, breathing human being. Julian agrees, but he must return to England where he is delayed for the next ten years. When he finally returns to Damascus, the owners of the house are dead, leaving Julian free to claim Bait Katib as his own.

Julian does claim Bait Katib and, for the next twenty years he lives for the house...and for Asilah, the missing daughter of the former owners, with whom he becomes obsessed. Then, one day, Julian's peaceful, reclusive existence is shattered when relatives of the former owners arrive and claim the house as their own.

Without tangible proof that he actually owns the house, Julian decides the only thing he can do is write about the twenty years he's spent there. As he writes, he feels a ghostly presence, the presence of Asilah, the missing daughter. Asilah, it seems, has been sharing the house with Julian. Now, he writes his history of the past twenty years in English during the day while Asilah writes her history in the same notebook in Arabic at night. Eventually, the two narratives meet and merge and Julian comes to a startling conclusion.

THE LIVES OF SHADOWS is a beautiful story that is beautifully told. People who demand stark realism in their fiction should probably give this book a pass, though. But those who love "ghostly presences" and poetically romantic novels will probably love THE LIVES OF SHADOWS. The author's beautiful illustrations make it easy to suspend disbelief and embrace the story of Julian and Asilah.

Barbara Hodgson isn't an author suited to everyone's taste (who is), but those who like her style will be enchanted with her work. Whether you "like" her books or not, she is a superb storyteller and a fine writer. I'm sorry her readership isn't larger; it certainly deserves to be.

Julian Beaufort, a young Briton on a 1914 graduation tour of the Middle East, falls in love with an old house in Damascus, once part of a large complex, and succeeds in buying it from the family which has occupied it for 210 years. World War I and a civil war in Syria delay his return to Syria until 1926, and when he finally gets back, he discovers that his house is the only one in the neighborhood to have survived the bombings and subsequent fires in Damascus.

Aided by the maid of the former owner, a porter he meets at the railroad station, and his Arabic teacher, he begins the restoration of the house to its former grandeur, a project which takes twenty years. The architectural drawings of various rooms and wings, and the sketches of details he plans to restore seem to grow larger and more vibrant while he is asleep, however, and we discover that Asilah, the missing daughter of the former owner, is "helping" with them from her hiding place, connecting psychically with Julian.

Hodgson, who is also an artist, has filled the novel with old newspaper photographs and stories, snapshots of Damascus, family portraits, Arabic writing, pressed flowers, transparencies, maps, close-ups of architectural detail, sketches, and even Julian's to-do lists. The reader does not need to "suspend disbelief" here because this detritus from Julian's daily life "proves" his existence. Asilah, and the palace which she explores and describes to us, may or may not exist, but we are willing to accept her existence at face value because we "know" that Julian exists. Fun to read, with illustrations which will fascinate even those who are not art historians, this novel is a welcome change of pace, a delightful and beautiful book satisfying on several levels. The abrupt ending, designed to surprise, is not really unexpected, but that is a small quibble for a book that is so visually pleasing, a rare picture book for adults. Mary Whipple