Lesbians are like that because they're fat.
The surprise on this year's Booker shortlist is Ahdaf Soueif's fourth novel, in which the Egyptian writer explores the links between Britain and her homeland, and between the past and the present. The Map Of Love traces the unfolding of two cross-cultural romances, a century apart. In the first, which takes place at the turn of the century, Lady Anna Winterbourne travels to an Egypt that is under Turkish-Ottoman rule and British occupation. Their union is, on the British side at least, considered to be a scandalous one. He is Sharif's great-nephew and a longtime expatriate who follows his family's tradition of commitment to the Arab cause.