This is a story that is a blend of historical fiction, greed, determination, women making waves, anger, finger-pointing, and tied with an ending that just left me sitting there with my mouth hanging open.Irene is a young woman who has spent years making a museum all it can be, silently permitting a man to take all the credit, knowing one day her time will come. But instead of being named the next curator, she's cast out...all because she is a woman.
She has one chance to take the world by storm: find some copper scrolls in Cambodia. It's ancient history, and valuable in so many ways.
Enter Marc, Simone, Louis, and numerous other people as the journey commences from Shanghai to Cambodia. There's angry tribemen, a dying man,government officials needing to be bought, drug use, arguments, the jungle, secrets of the past unveiled, and all the while Irene comes to realize a stunning moral: You can spend the rest of your life always searching and wanting more or you can be happy with your life as it is.
Simone wants the scrolls to start a revolution. Louis says he wants them for Cambodia. Irene wanted them for herself. The tension mounts as they continue to argue and though they are working together, they are also racing against each other.
It was intense and a perfect blend of history and fantasy and heart-stopping moments. I'd give it a five but I was really put off by Simone.
This was a Vine book.
Great quote: "loneliness is not about what happens when you are alone but about what happens when you are with others."
Your first paragraph was enough to hook me!
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