What the River Knows
What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez
416 Pages
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books
Release Date: November 14, 2023
Fiction, Historical Fiction, 1880s, Teens, Young Adult, Archeology, Egypt, Argentina
Inez Olivera lives in a beautiful mansion on a great estate in Argentina with her aunt and two cousins. Her parents spend six months every year in Egypt excavating. This year is no different, but Inez has a plan. Instead of wanting to choose a husband and settle down like other young women her age, she decides to travel alone to Egypt in 1884.
When she arrives in Egypt, she meets her Uncle’s assistant Whit at the ship docks. His plan is to put her back on the boat and send her back to Argentina, but Inez has other plans. She leaves him with all her belongings, hoping he is a gentleman and will take care of them, and takes a train to the hotel she knows her parents always stay while they are in Cairo.
The book has a steady pace, the characters are developed, and it is written in first person point of view. I love Inez and her plucky attitude. There are not many people that would just pick up and travel halfway across the world on their own. Her downfall is her faith in others. The book has the same quirkiness as the The Mummy movie but with the twists of Hercule Poirot. If you like historical fiction, you will enjoy reading this book.
