Diplomat, teacher, British press attaché and spy in Alexandria of Egypt, elder brother of animal writer Gerald Durrell, Lawrence Durrell (1912-1990) became world famous after the publication of the Alexandria Quartet, which divided English-language criticism into two camps : the first predicted the glory of the new Proust to the author, the second saw him as a literary charlatan. The third novel in the quartet, Mountolive (1958) is a new and again completely unpredictable look at the relationships of already familiar characters. This time through the eyes of David Mountolive, a high-ranking diplomat who, after many years of absence, returns to Alexandria, to its secrets, passions and intrigues.