Two excellent books

I have been reading a lot lately of everything two books stand out:

"The map of love" by Ahdaf Soueif.
A difficult book to describe as it is the story of two women (one American and one Egyptian) who meet now in Egypt when one (the American one) delivers to the other (the Egyptian one) a case which contains the journals, letters and other paper traces of another woman (who turns out to be both their grand mother ... or is it great grand mother?...Either way it is not particularly significant so I am giving nothing away). The Egyptian woman writes a book as she goes through the papers about the life of their common ancestor. In the book we are reading (which is not the book she is writing) we see the life of the two women and the life of their grand mother. A lot of very interesting historical facts are passed along about the colonial history of Egypt through all this.
A great book.

"Ahab's wife, or the star gazer" by ???
I left the book in Johannesburg. I wanted to make sure I had it with me in South Africa in case I wanted to read it again.
It is the life story of the girl who eventually becomes Captain Ahab's wife. Let me tell you that her claim to fame has nothing to do with Ahab (At least at the point where I am) as she is a girl / woman with a lot of personality.