Lost & Found in Egypt

For anyone who has ever felt stuck in their lives, or wonders if there isn’t more to who they think they are, Lost & Found in Egypt is a must-read. With more dumb guts than preparation, a middle-aged woman with a desk job decides to take a solo journey to the Middle East on the Get-There-and-Wing-it Plan. In a voice both raw and illuminating, Kyla Merwin explores the back roads, bustling bazaars, and shifting sands of Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula. Inspired by mystical messages of the long-lost Gnostic Christians, what starts out as a research trip turns into a dramatic journey that these so-called heretics call ‘the terrors and ecstasies of direct and unremitting encounters with the self.’ In the Eat Pray Love of the Middle East, Kyla navigates lost hotel reservations, maniacal street life, museums, monuments, and the wacky and warmhearted people she meets. These audacious travels also trigger reflections on the many tender, tempestuous and sometimes tragic love affairs that shaped her life. Her journeys take Kyla through dramatic inner and outer landscapes – sometimes frightening, often hilarious and ultimately heartwarming – that finally bring her back home, and back to her most authentic self.