The Magician's Wife — Brian Moore

Emmeline is the young, lovely wife of Henri Lambert, a world-famous magician. But her secluded, bourgeois existence ends when she and her husband are sent to North Africa on a mission for Napoleon III. Through his flawless illusionist's art, Lambert is to perform a near miracle: to show the rebellious Bedouins that Imperial France's power is absolute. But the desert tribesmen are in thrall to another "Holy God," an aging marabout they look upon as a living saint--and their savior. It is up to Lambert to be hailed as the greater magician. Yet it is Emmeline--strangely liberated by Arab custom, shedding inhibitions along with provincial ideas of patriotism and propriety--who threatens the mission's outcome in a dangerous act of courage and betrayal that will have unforeseen consequences and leave her profoundly changed.