Sandra Arnold

Tomorrow's Empire is a multi-layered story set in England, Turkey, New Zealand and the USA. It is forged from the themes of cultural conflict and misunderstanding, through the relationship of the two main characters – Sarah, a feminist and atheist, and Celik, whose beliefs, rooted in the strict moral code of Islam, drive his ambition to establish a global Islamic society.

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Reviews 

 

(Christopher Moore, Christchurch Press, 2000)

‘Tomorrow’s Empire is an ambitious novel, even for an experienced writer. Its sheer scope and cast of characters could overwhelm a writer of lesser talent, but she plunges into them with perception and not inconsiderable courage. Tomorrow’s Empire is Arnold’s second novel. Set in England, Turkey, New Zealand and the USA, it focuses on the lives on feminist and atheist Sarah, and Celik, a man with beliefs embedded in Islamic philosophy and law. These two disparate lives and personalities collide, entwine, and separate against the old world and the new. Certainty and uncertainty. Cynicism and absolute faith. Four pillars which support the entire book. Arnold wrote and rewrote the book over several years before it met her expectations. It reflects her painstaking refining. The writing in sections achieves an almost diamond-like faceting. In others, the author move from sparseness to a rare opulence. Her ravishing descriptions of Istanbul chart with consummate ease a culture and society hovering uneasily, as they have done for centuries, between east and west.’ 

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(Graham Beattie, Radio New Zealand, 2000)

‘She writes from the point of view of a man and so I think that’s an especially credible performance by her to pull it off. He’s fascinating and extremely infuriating. Turkey is partly in Europe and partly in Asia and it’s so very well portrayed by her I wanted to fly there instantly. There’s one description by Sarah in the markets of Istanbul and you could smell it and hear it. It was very well done indeed. I did enjoy it and I especially enjoyed the descriptions of Turkey and the historical and ancient monuments.’ 

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(James Norcliffe, 2000)

‘Tomorrow’s Empire tells a compelling story. In the central figure of Celik, Sandra Arnold has created an individual and complex character, who, while he both fascinates and infuriates, is at the same time a window into a cultural mindset and set of values invariably misunderstood or even feared in the West.’ 

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(Ross Lay, Sunday Star Times, 2000)

‘Sandra Arnold does an impressive job of getting inside the head of a character very different from herself.’ 

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(Ruth Todd, Plains FM, 2000)

‘A wonderful, wonderful story which combines fact and fiction. I learned heaps from it.’