Antor Caspardian is a famous man, a self-made businessman who has
rubbed elbows with world leaders. He is someone whose advice is
sought by heads of countries where political conflicts and wars have
arisen. He lived a full and complicated life and in this book
"Farewell Alexandria" we learn the details of his multifaceted
personality and the many events which culminated in his status as a
world businessman, a man who stepped upon the world stage and became
a major player. Yet, hidden within his life are secrets which only he
and those very close to him know. On a personal level, perhaps all
the fame and fortune he acquired can not cover up the pain and losses
he experienced to achieve success. He never married the one true love
of his life ... yet he had two children, a son and daughter by two
different women one of whom he loved on a very deep and personal
level. He learns he has children, when they are nearly adults. This
is the one major source of his personal pain, he can not reveal he is
their father due to their social situation and his own status. Later,
they *do* learn who their real father is which has consequences in
their lives that no one can anticipate.

The seeds for his major successes in life and his personal pain were
sown and grew in Alexandria, Egypt where he lived prior to World War
I. He is the son of immigrant parents, who came from Turkey to
achieve economic freedom. His father began as a carpenter and became
a furniture artisan, famous for the high quality of his creations. He
built up a thriving business. They are Catholic and Antor was sent to
a private Catholic school where he was a very gifted student. Rather
than pursue his studies in Italy on a scholarship, Antor became
apprenticed to an accountant. Antor realized money and social status
were related to power. Those who gained wealth became powerful and
were politically connected, respected. They led very different lives
than the majority of Alexandria's citizens. He wanted this for
himself. The drive to achieve success in business and gain respect
and power were his major ambitions in life. With his accounting
background, he examined which of the banks were well connected to the
business families of Alexandria, that is where he applied for a job
and was hired. Antor became accepted by the Wirsa family who did high
level business with his bank. He met their daughter and fell head
over heels in love with Marguerite. Antor sensed she felt the same.
Her parents tolerated his social visits but had higher social and
business connected ambitions for her marriage. He pursued his
interest in her but fate turned against him. Marguerite was taken to
Europe by her parents and quickly married to the man her parents
favored. Unknown to Antor, she carried his child, unknown to her
husband, the child was fathered by someone else ... The timing was so
close, it was easy to deceive them all.

Antor's business connections and relationships prospered within
Alexandria. He put aside his personal pain and applied his energies
to his work. He learned money is what counted and if you had enough,
the world can be yours. He met a woman who taught him about social
relations and how to cultivate the rich and famous. He learned even
more about the art of seduction and what women wanted from a man. As
time passed, some of his businesses failed, he turned to new avenues
of making money. His connections to the Italians and the Jewish
merchants vanished due to events which would erupt into World War II.
Even his associatons with the British Army took a turn for the worse.
Yet, he managed to maintain relations with the King of Egypt and his
business relations began to prosper again. He dealt in Egyptian
cotton and later scrap metal. He diverted funds to Swiss acounts. In
the mid-1950s he got in early on a deal with a pharmaceutical company
which went world wide. One of his rivals in this arena was a young
entrepeneur named George Cristofides, a banker and up and coming
world-wide businessman. The reader will appreciate the unexpected
twists and turns in this story about the business and personal
relations which arise due to this association. The story and plot are
epic in scope and contain deep caverns that are examined and in which
unexpected events take on new meaning as the author so cleverly ties
together the personal love life of Antor Caspardian with the world
business events that seem to rule his life. One day, he realizes that
blood is thicker than water. He comes to appreciate the family and
children he never knew existed ... which enter his life. This is a
complicated book which includes a vast amount of recent history as
its backdrop and which reveals a twisted tale of success on a world
scale with lessons which reveal the high price paid for acheiving
power and political influence. This is a most engaging novel with
excellent plots and twists which will keep the reader fully engaged
from start to finish. Erika Borsos [pepper flower]

Posted on behalf of Derek Flower

In “The Shores of Wisdom”, Derek Adie Flower gives a delightful story of the rise and fall of the Ancient Library of Alexandria – the world’s power of knowledge and culture twenty-three centuries ago. Flower tells the story with a unique style, giving us glimpses of the forces which made the place prosper with great philosophers and scientists (Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes…) and the causes of decline when politics and religion became in conflict with rationality… The book is indeed an enjoyable piece to read.

Prof. Ahmed H. Zewail 1998 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Egypt

There is tantalisingly little known about the great library of Alexandria. The writers, philosophers and historians who used it, and whose works filled its shelves, were the founding fathers of Western civilisation…..Derek Flower was moved to write this book by the romantic project of recreating the library of Alexandria…. He tells the tale in rollicking style, with many entertaining anecdotes.….

Michael Borrie -  Literary Review. UK

…. Much of Flower’s book consists of brief biographies of the brilliant men attracted to Alexandria by the library, a roll call of those who laid the foundation of our civilisation: Euclid, Archimedes, Eratosthenes, Strabo and Galen and, in due course, the philosophers who shaped the dogma of the Christian religion….

Russell Chamberlin’s.  Monacle UK