Books like Gilgamesh by Joan London

It is 1937, and the modern world is eagerly awaiting the next world war. On a farm in rural Australia, seventeen-year-old Edith lives with her mother and sister, Frances. One day, two men, her English cousin Leopold and his Armenian friend Aram, arrive -- taking the long way home from an archaeological dig in Iraq -- to captivate with tales of a world far beyond the narrow horizon of her small town of Nunderup. One such story is the epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian king who traveled the world in search of eternal life. Two years later, in 1939, Edith and her young son, Jim, set off on their own journey, to Soviet Armenia, where they are trapped by the outbreak of war. This rich, spare, and evocative novel is a debut novel that marks the emergence of a world-class talent, exploring themes of friendship, love, loss, and acceptance.

First publish date: 2001