I have to apologize for the previous three stars, this is amazing. It's like an Agatha Christie novel I used to like but far less problematic: archaeology, mystery, spies, romance. If you find it on a Palestine reading list, there's good reason, though you'll have to wait a bit for that plot/theme to emerge. You'll visit Petra (!), France, India, and Palestine among other places. 

Some other solid themes:
-Lots of reference to poetry in here, so it'll be no surprise that the idea of Palestine as a lover comes into play. 

-I liked the play of the magical against the sort of scientific or calulating world and their convergence. 

-Near the end she also explores that phenomenon that we contain multitudes. People seemed to discover this with social media in a new way recently (this book is from the 90s about the 70s), but it's always been the case that different bits of our personality come out with different people- or we may show different faces professionally, to close friends, or to family. Sometimes this brings an accusation of falseness or deceit, but maybe all of it is truth - how we want to be perceived, how we live up to it, how we deal with not living up to it, etc. Always an interesting question. 

But I think if you're reading this as someone new to the topic, you'll pick up a lot of detail about Palestine by the end, both in the older spy and romance story and in the 90s storyline of just this guy trying to get a book published. This book may just cause you to join a protest or scream Free Palestine into the void. Or at least examine some biases in the media or in your brain. 

The ending is perfectly finished and unfinished with a haunting last line.

Also finishing it on NYE is fun- this day plays a role in the story.