MC Kollschegg
When it is either too hot or too wet to be outside, pick up the biography, Isabelle: the Life of Isabelle Eberhardt by Annette Kobak for a good read.
Isabelle was a brilliant French writer who was of Russian heritage but was born in Switzerland and lived most of her short life in the North African desert. Enamored with Islam, she traveled throughout North Africa, writing about the lives of the colonial French and local Arabs. She assumed a variety of disguises as a teenager, most of them male figures, in order to gain entrance into the tents and various Arab dwellings. At one point she became involved with a Sufi sect who was heavily involved in helping the poor and needy as well as speaking out against the injustices of colonial rule. In an assassination attempt her arm was almost completely severed but she forgave the man who injured her and asked that his life be spared.
She lived her life to the fullest, at one time becoming addicted to hashish, but always making dangerous trips across North Africa disguised as a man. Her garb never influenced her sexuality and she was soon married to an Arab officer in the French Colonial Cavalry. On his visit to see Isabelle in Algeria after a long separation, they stayed in a clay house which collapsed on both of them during a torrential flash flood. He survived but she was killed. She was only 27.
Join the members of the Monday Book Club as they discuss this fascinating story on August 4 at 7:00 p.m. in the clubhouse Gold Room.