Awards
PEN/Martha Albrand Award finalist.
Synopses & Reviews
Freya Stark — traveler, explorer, Arabist, and woman of letters — began the extraordinary adventures that would glamorize her — and would catapult her into public life for the next sixty years — in 1927. And with the publication of
The Valley of the Assassins in 1934, her legend was launched.
Leaving behind a miserable family life, Freya set out, at the age of thirty-four, to explore remote and dangerous regions of the Middle East. She was captured in 1927 by the French military police after penetrating their cordon around the rebellious Druze. She explored the mountainous territory of the mysterious Assassins of Persia, became the first woman to explore Luristan in western Iran, and followed ancient frankincense routes to locate a lost city. Admired by British officialdom, her knowledge of Middle Eastern languages and culture aided the military and diplomatic corps, for whom she conceived an effective propaganda network during WWII.
But Stark?s indomitable spirit was forged by contradictions, her high-profile wanderings often masking deep insecurities. A child of privilege, she grew up in near poverty; she longed for love, but consistently focused on the wrong men. This is a brilliant and balanced biography — filled with sheikhs, diplomats, nomad warriors and chieftains, generals, would be lovers, and luminaries. Author Jane Geniesse digs beneath the mythology to uncover a complex, quixotic, and controversial woman.
Review:
"[Geniesse] has achieved, in the end, an admirable focus, at once critical and sympathetic. The portrait that emerges is a subtle and generous one. For all Stark?s unresolved contradictions, her distinction as a latter-day woman of letters survives." The New York Times Book Review
Review:
"Highly readable biography....[T]he woman who emerges from these pages is a complex figure — heroic, driven...and entirely human." Richard Bernstein, The New York Times
Review:
"Passionate Nomad is a work of nonfiction that reads and sings with the drama and lilt of a fine novel. The story of Freya Stark is stunning, inspiring, sad, funny, unique, and moving. Jane Fletcher Geniesse tells it straight, but with a care for delicious detail and a sympathy for the characters that make this a truly special book." Jim Lehrer
Description:
Includes bibliographical references and index.
About the Author
Jand Fletcher Geniesse is a former reporter for The New York Times whose writing has been featured in The Washington Post, New York magazine, and Town & Country, among others. She is the author of a novel, The Riches of Life, and lives in Washington, D.C.
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