Books like Leo the African by Amin Maalouf

In the late eighteenth century, thief‐and‑whoremaster Ned Rise and Scottish explorer Mungo Park chart a journey from London’s underbelly to Scotland’s highlands and down into Africa’s darkest reaches, chasing the source of the Niger.

Accused of mocking the inviolate codes of Islam, the Persian poet and sage Omar Khayyam fortuitously finds sympathy with the very man who is to judge his alleged crimes. Recognising genuis, the judge decides to spare him and gives him instead a small, blank book, encouraging him to confine his thoughts to it alone. Thus begins the seamless blend of fact and fiction that is Samarkand. Vividly re-creating the history of the manuscript of the Rubaiyaat of Omar Khayyam, Amin Maalouf spans continents and centuries with breathtaking vision: the dusky exoticism of 11th-century Persia, with its poetesses and assassins; the same country's struggles nine hundred years later, seen through the eyes of an American academic obsessed with finding the original manuscript; and the fated maiden voyage of the Titanic, whose tragedy led to the Rubaiyaat's final resting place - all are brought to life with keen assurance by this gifted and award-winning writer.

Embark on a 19th‑century Arctic voyage with naturalist Erasmus Darwin Wells as he seeks the lost Franklin expedition on the ship *The Narwhal*, confronting ice, isolation, and a fracturing friendship amid a brutal winter.

Examines the complexities of a continent influenced by its indigenous roots, Islam, and European Christianity. Includes history of Egyptian pharaohs, matriarchal social systems, the slave trade and the contemporary political crises of post-colonialism, famine, and apartheid.