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Book Details
GENRE: Historical Fiction
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BLURB:
TAMANRASSET is historical fiction set on the edge of the Sahara as the ancient world begins to fade and great empires collide. Four strangers—a mature Foreign Legionnaire, a Sharif’s wrathful son, an ambitious American archaeologist, and an abandoned Swedish widow—become adrift and isolated, but when their paths intersect, the fragile connections between them tell a story of survival and fate on the edge of the abyss. Blending the sweep of classic adventure with the horror of a great historical calamities, Edward Parr’s TAMANRASSET is a saga about the crossroads where nomads meet.
Excerpt One:
The Sun had not yet risen above the ruins of the Mechouar Palace, but at the mosque nearby many Muslim people of the city of Tlemcen were already at their morning prayer. It was a great privilege to be admitted to one of the oldest mosques in Algeria, over eight hundred years old, and an even greater privilege to be allowed to pray before the mihrab there among the great white columns that lined the enormous hall. As the prayers ended, there was a gentle rustling of movement as the faithful rose and exited to the open and airy marble-tiled courtyard of the mosque, still quiet in the twilight of dawn. Isabel retrieved her leather boots and exited a side door beneath the shadow of the towering brick minaret. Covered by her tightly drawn dark brown burnouse, khaki pants, white shirt, and a black hijab, Isabel walked along the great stone wall to the main gate of the palace. The few buildings in the complex that were still usable had been made into offices for the French army, but the pool and gardens of the central courtyard were peaceful and shadowy. She passed an alcove that featured Islamic calligraphy carved into the stucco, and Isabel stopped to read it: “Allah is God, there is no god but He: the King.”
A quiet voice behind her asked: “Madame Pedersen?”
She turned to find a short, elegantly dressed French officer approaching her. His flat-topped white hair was soldierly, but his crisp, tailored uniform, polished boots, and wide waxed mustache displayed a carefully composed appearance.
“Peace be with you,” she said, casting her eyes downward and crossing her arm over her chest as she nodded.
“Peace be with you, Madame. I apologize if I disturbed you; will you come inside?”
“As you wish.”
She followed the French colonel to a charming wood-paneled room overlooking an orchard of citrus trees bearing large green fruit. The colonel sat on a bare wood chair beside a wide wooden table, crossed his legs, and twirled the end of his wide mustache. Isabel stood silently before him in a respectful posture.
“I have the greatest respect for your beliefs, my dear, but it would be helpful to me if you would sit and speak to me informally. Would you be so kind?”
“Of course,” she said and she sat on the chair beside his. Her demeanor now expressed more of her experience and self-assurance, her hijab more a symbol of her confidence than of her humility. The colonel raised an eyebrow in appreciation of her serene face and brilliant blue eyes.
© 2025 by Edward Parr and Edwardian Press (New Orleans, Louisiana)
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Edward (“Ted”) Parr studied playwriting at New York University in the 1980’s, worked with artists Robert Wilson, Anne Bogart, and the Bread and Puppet Theater, and staged his own plays Off-Off-Broadway, including Trask, Mythographia, Jason and Medea, Rising and an original translation of Oedipus Rex before pursuing a lengthy career in the law and public service. He published his Kingdoms Fall trilogy of World War One espionage adventure novels which were collectively awarded Best First Novel and Best Historical Fiction Novel by Literary Classics in 2016. He has always had a strong interest in expanding narrative forms, and in his novel writing, he explores older genres of fiction (like the pulp fiction French Foreign Legion adventures or early espionage fiction) as inspiration to examine historical periods of transformation. His main writing inspirations are Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Bernard Cornwell, Georges Surdez, and Patrick O’Brien.
Socials:
Website: https://edwardparrbooks.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/edward-parr-5808b15/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7369165.Edward_Parr
Amazon Author: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Edward-Parr/author/B00GACO3NC?ccs_id=a023fe74-dd9a-429f-b56a-5cfe148dafc5
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/DryCar9119AB/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/edwardparrbooks/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576965808471
Amazon: https://a.co/d/44XsoJU
Barnes & Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/tamanrasset-edward-parr/1148255148
Guest Post
What Kind of Writer Am I?
To look at the novels I’ve written so far, both my new novel Tamanrasset: Crossroads of the
Nomad and my earlier works, I’d say my historical fiction writing has the following qualities,
First, my writing is “Historically Immersive.” I try to make a time and place come alive with a
lot of accurate detail. You might even say that I’m part documentarian. My approach is what I
like to call “boots on the ground,” a common military cliche meaning to deploy combat troops
into a country. I mean it to convey the idea that the characters I’ve invented are “deployed” into a
real situation, where the things that happened in the past are actually happening in the story to
them so that we as readers can get a sense of what it was like to be there and understand how the
events unfolded and why decisions were made. I definitely lean more towards authenticity and
accuracy rather than romantic abstraction. My prose is heavily descriptive with attention to
sensory detail: sounds and smells in the marketplace, shapes and colors of architecture, details of
the uniforms of the soldiers. I favor concrete imagery that grounds the narrative in lived
experience.
Second, I like to write stories that have an “Epic Scope.” Whether it’s the sweep of the First
World War or a story that spans northern Africa over an eight-year period, I enjoy long-form
stories that have an immersive feel and allow the reader to see how things evolved over time. On
a large canvas, individual lives both influence and are swept along by historical forces. In
Tamanrasset, the story takes place against a backdrop of events that occurred in Morocco and
Algiers over an eight year period, roughly 1900 to 1908, a time when France, already the
established colonial power in Algeria, began to move into Morocco and Westernize a culture that
had dominated the region for a centuries.
Third, I’m a “Polyphonic Narrator.” I like to write third person perspective from multiple points
of view to allow different voices and vantage points into the events taking place. This is
particularly important in Tamanrasset, a story that has an ensemble of four lead characters, some
with wildly divergent views. Some scenes are written from two distinct points of view, such as
the opening chapters’ attack by local tribesmen on the French Foreign Legionnaires in the
western Sahara which is seen from the POV of the Legionnaires and then from the POV of the
attacking Doui-Menia tribesmen. This suggests that history is layered and contested, not
reducible to one perspective.
Fourth, I’m an “Antique Stylist.” Both the diction and lexicon I use when writing, as well as the
story forms, formats, and motifs, intentionally adopt an older, Edwardian or late-Victorian
cadence, echoing period travelogues and adventure novels. This is intended to give my writing a
sort of historical veneer but also marks me as someone deliberately aligning with classical
literary traditions and antique literature rather than a contemporary minimalist one.
Finally, while I’d say it’s difficult to extrapolate from two works (my new novel Tamanrasset
and my earlier series Kingdoms Fall) I’d say that my writing shows an interest in periods of
societal transformation, the collapse of empires, the fragility of humanity, and the conflict and
convergence of cultures. I absolutely reject the Hollywood movie script story structure and prefer
stories that leave me asking questions rather than sell me on some rigid view of the world.
All of this comes together in my new novel Tamanrasset: Crossroads of the Nomad, in which
the lives of four protagonists become entwined: A mature Foreign Legionnaire who has made his
home in the harsh life of France’s desert fortresses; a young Arab son of the Sharif that leads the
tribes in the western Sahara fighting to protect their families; an ambitious American
archeologist in charge of the excavations at Carthage; and a young Swedish widow in Fez who
adopts Islam in order to earn a place there. Each of them suffers a crisis which isolates them from
their community – death, betrayal, the struggle with one’s weaknesses – and it is only through
the chance intersection of their lives that they become bound to each other and come to influence
a world that is vanishing. It’s is a novel about loss and alienation and the fragile, often transitory
bonds that tie people together. The story, I hope, reflects something of a world that is now gone
forever, a nearly barren world of ancient mysteries.
Tour Schedule
September 30: The Avid Reader
October 2: Sandra’s Book Club
October 7: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
October 9: Dawn’s Reading Nook
October 14: Wine Cellar Library
October 16: Beyond Romance
October 21: Aubrey Wynne: Timeless Love
October 23: The Key of Love
October 28: Sapphyria’s Books
October 30: Sarandipity’s
November 4: A Wonderful World of Words
November 6: Author C.A.Milson
November 11: Gina Rae MItchell
November 13: Sybrina’s Book Blog
November 18: Country Mamas With Kids
November 20: Ellwyn’s Blog
November 25: FUONLYKNEW
December 2: Mx. Phoebe’s Viewpoint
December 4: fundinmental
December 9: Rambling—-through the mind, through the country and throughout history
December 11: Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
December 16: Always Reading
December 18: Fabulous and Brunette
December 30: It’s Raining Books
January 1: Joanne Guidoccio
January 6: Long and Short Reviews
January 8: The Faerie Review
January 13: Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’
January 15: Nanasbookreviews
January 20: Straight From the Library
Giveaway
One randomly chosen winner via Rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Thanks anyway
Thank you so much for hosting TAMANRASSET!
Thanks for allowing me to post on your blog today. I’ll check back to answer any questions that are posted.
I love social history, but I love minimalist writing which is in contrast I know. Yet when I read some of the true history of the raids on bars during the prohibition – I was not bored to read about what the wallpaper looked like.