Alexandria: The City That Changed the World by

Some cities simply exist. Others change the world. Alexandria is the story of the latter.

Islam Issa’s father always told him about their city’s magnificence. Standing before the great new library in Alexandria, it finally hit home. This is no ordinary library. And Alexandria is no ordinary city.

Blending rigorous research with myth, folklore, and a storyteller’s touch, this is an authoritative and lively cultural history of the world’s first truly modern metropolis. Founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria became the crucible where East met West for millennia and reigned as the undisputed global capital of knowledge. A city at the forefront of human progress, but also one that weathered brutal disasters, plagues, crusades, and violence.

Empires clashed over her shores, from the Greeks and Romans to the Arabs, Ottomans, French, and British. And what a cast of characters shaped her fate: Aristotle, Cleopatra, Saint Mark the Evangelist, Napoleon. Each left their mark. Each is here in these pages.

We love a book you can truly sink into, and this one delivers. It’s a sweeping, gripping journey from pre-Homeric times to the present day, perfect for lovers of ancient history, the Mediterranean, and epic real-life stories.

A book club favorite and a fresh new release, this trade paperback is one of our current staff picks. It’s the kind of book made for slow reading, ideally with the sound of the sea just outside and salt in the air.

Pull up a chair. Come linger over a bit of history that changed everything.

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