My Father and I

Egyptian leader Anwar Sadat's first marriage, at 22, lasted 10 years, ending in 1949 with a divorce at his instigation. He soon remarried, to Jihan Rauf, his wife at the time of his 1981 assassination. In his years of fame, Sadat's first familyhis ex-wife and three daughtersremained outsiders in his life, little known to the public. The author, third daughter of the first marriage, has written an affecting memoir of her excluded family, her trying relationship with Sadat and her quest for independence. After her two failed marriages (the first, at 12, to an abusive man, ended in a divorce, approved by Sadat only after her attempted suicide), the author sought to win her father's long-denied affection and respect. Still unsure she had touched him with her love, she was a student in Boston when she learned of her father's death, via TV. Her candor makes this an absorbing, revealing work. Photos not seen by PW. November 1