In the first book of Durrell's Alexandria Quartet, the story of the mysterious and charismatic Justine is told by her lover, an impoverished Irish teacher who has sought refuge across the Mediterranean in Greece. It is a love story, but the real heroine of the book is its setting: the city of Alexandria, with a sky of 'hot nude pearl' and a thousand streets below, crowded, sensual and exotic; a complex and heady mix of elegance and poverty.