This reimagining of Forster's life is at once enlightening, humorous and deeply convincing-a clear ad sympathetic psychological probing of one of Britain's finest novelists. Shifting across the landscapes of India, Egypt, and England, Forster's life is informed by his relationships-from Mohammed el Adl, an Egyptian tram conductor whose companionship becomes invaluable, to the Greek literary titan, poet C.P. But it will be another twelve years and a second stay in India before the publication of his finest work, A Passage to India. Slowly, the strands of a story begin to gather in his mind: a sense of impending menace, lust in close confines, under a hot, empty sky. Foster's heroic journey of self-discovery, as the novelist confronts his fraught childhood, falls in unrequited love with his closest friend, and finds himself surprisingly freed to explore his "minorite" desires as secretary to a most unusual Maharajah. Damon Galgut's brilliant fictional biography lures readers into E.M. On board is Edward Morgan Forster, a reserved man taunted by writer's block, attempting to come to terms with his art and his repressed sexuality. The year is 1912, and the SS Birmingham is approaching India.
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