A Cafe on the Nile

by Bartle Bull

Book Overview

A historical novel set in 1935 East Africa follows the tribulations of the Mills twins as they venture on an ill-fated safari; Anton and Gwenn Rider; and Olivio Alavedo, the dwarf proprietor of the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786705566
• ISBN13: 9780786705566
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf Publishers
• Length: 466 Pages
• Weight: 1.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.6" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Epic Thriller Set in 1930's Abyssinia -- Wow!

Bartle Bull's "A Cafe on the Nile" is a rip-roaring adventure yarn set in 1930's Africa -- generally set in the urban jungle of Cairo and the vast plains and mountains of Abyssinia (Ethiopia). A large cast of characters breathes life into Bull's vast canvas, as the novel is part romance, part war novel, part treasure hunt, and all excitement. Full disclosure -- I picked this novel up without knowing it is a sequel to Bull's "The White Rhino Hotel." I think this novel succeeds as a stand-alone work, although I'm pretty sure I would have enjoyed it even more knowing some of the backstory involving many of the characters -- suffice it to say that I will be jumping into "Hotel" as soon as possible! Bull has truly created a cast for the ages. The dwarf Olivio runs the titular Cafe, and his devious mind is forever plotting his next venture (as well as how to ruin his enemies). Bull captures the psuedo-formal speech and thought of this Goan genius very well, and Olivio's brainstorms are among the most entertaining passages in the novel. Unfortunately for Olivio, he has taken on some powerful enemies as he seeks to expand his holdings in the Nile Delta, and this is a land where enemies play for keeps. But with trusty Lord Penfold at his side, as well as the muscular Nubian Tariq, Olivio has a fighting chance. On a parallel storyline, the English gypsy Anton Rider is trying to put his marriage to the beautiful doctor-in-training Gwenn back together. Fed up with Anton's multiple infidelities and his long absences on safari, Gwenn and her two sons are shacking up with Lorenzo Grimaldi, an officer in the Italian air force. Gwenn's romance with Grimaldi comes to a sudden halt once she decides to take part in the Red Cross efforts in Abyssinia -- everyone knows that Italy is soon going to invade Abyssinia and annex it as part of Mussolini's bid to bring the Roman Empire back from the ashes of history. And soon Gwenn is in the middle of the fighting as the Italian war machine hits the Abyssinians hard with everything at its disposal . . . including the poison gas outlawed by the ineffectual League of Nations. Anton Rider is also in Abyssinia when the war breaks out, leading a bunch of rich Americans on safari, including the beautiful (and sexually aggressive) twin Kentuckians, Harriett and Bernadette. The safari is spoiled by the outbreak of the war, particularly because the Italians see that Harriett has filmed the Italians using the poison gas. Rather than risk international outrage for this breach of the rules of war, the Italians decide it would simply be easier to kill the witnesses. Further complicating matters, Anton Rider's ruthless friend, the German mercenary/thief/soldier Ernst von Decken, has stolen several chests of Italian silver coins which are vital to the war effort. Soon, von Decken is also engaged in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the Italian army. "A Cafe on the Nile" is not for those looking for subtle character devel

excellent reading!

This is the first Bartle Bull I've read but won't be the last. Thoroughly enjoyable and difficult to put down. Very fast paced and it just keeps going and going. Sort of like Tom Clancy without the techno-babble and Robert Ludlum without the gory details. I got caught up in what was going to happen next to the characters, the color of Cairo, Ethiopia and colonial empires circa 1935 and the plot. Although the characters are many, they are well developed. I got a sense of knowing them well quickly without page after page of agonizing character building. I just became a fan of BB. On to the Devil's Oasis and Shanghai Station.

A Cafe on the Nile

I read an average of two books a week. This is the best book I have read this year. This book has a fast moving plot and delightful characters and a pace I haven't seen since I read the Hardy Boys mysteries as a child. Bull has chosen a location and time that is unfamiliar to most of us. The historical setting alone is worth the time. His turn of phrase comes close to the quality of Tom Robbins with a richness of lexicon that is like rich chocolate. The predecessor novel The White Rhino Hotel is also worth your time. I only wish Bull were more prolific.

A Rip-roaring Old-fashioned Read!

They don't write 'em like this anymore. Or at least they don't write and publish enough of them. Here is a tale of high adventure set in the wilds of Africa (from the rough and tumble city of Cairo, Egypt to the highlands of Ethiopia) on the eve of World War II. Bull writes vividly about a fascinating cast of characters caught up in events which are both world shaking and personally significant to each of them. World War I is only just behind these people and World War II is already looming on the horizon. Fascist Italy has pretensions to empire in Africa and poison gas is to be the key to it. All the while, the Goan dwarf, Olivio Fonseca Alavedo, is poised to grow rich with his schemes to corner the cotton market while his friends are struggling with the Depression-induced poverty of the thirties. Into this shaken time come twin sisters from America, paying for a safari to be conducted by Olivio's old friend, the hunter Anton Rider out of Kenya, while Anton's lovely wife Gwenn, who has left him to do something more significant with her life, and for her two sons, lives nearby, the mistress of a clever Italian air force officer whose attentions enable her to pursue her medical studies at the University of Cairo. An elder, down-at-the-heels English gentleman rounds out Olivio's little circle of close friends while the rough-edged German adventurer, Ernst von Decker, shows up to draw Rider into his own schemes. Although the players are mostly of the stock sort, they are engagingly drawn. I loved how Bull portrays the "white hunter", Rider, as a veritable fish out of water in the mean streets of Cairo, stumbling awkwardly about and giving his prospective clients second thoughts about him, yet a man who is masterfully competent in his own milieu in the bush. And the Goan dwarf, Olivio, is an especially intriguing (and oddly touching) personality in his machinations to outlast and defeat his scheming enemies in the Cairene bureaucracy while grappling with personal disabilities which would defeat lesser souls. And yet, there was something pro-forma about it all. One of the inside blurbs called this book "a cup of CASABLANCA, a dollop of Isak Dinesen, a pinch of INDIANA JONES and a touch of TENDER IS THE NIGHT." I think that's about right and that it makes for a very heady brew if you like this sort of thing. As it happens, I do. There were, however, a few problems since the tale did seem somewhat drawn out and not nearly as compelling in the middle as at the end. And I was made a bit uncomfortable by the constant shifts between locales and story lines as the action was continuously deferred in one place to look in on alternating players elsewhere as the tale progressed. My own preference is for a story which pretty much carries you right through the main line of action. But the varying streams were each interesting in their own way and, while slowing up the read, did not finally halt it. I found myself more a

A thrIller set in Africa at the beginning of World War II.

I found this vivid African thriller to be a terrific combination of history, adventure and bittersweet romance. With Mussolini's Italian arrmy invading Ethiopia while the white hunter hero is on safari with his wild American clients (a pair of beautiful and spoiled twins from Kentucky), and with other exotic characters intriguing and romancing in 1935 Cairo, it's a rather old-fashioned and very well-written non-stop adventure. The atmosphere is compelling, and I felt I was in Africa. I recommend it to readers who like exciting historical novels and don't mind a few sexy scenes.