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“The Sands Of Time” is a 1988 novel by Sidney Sheldon, which encapsulates the lives of four nuns of a Cistercian convent in Spain who elope during a military attack on the convent by the GOE (a special group formed to pursue basque terrorists) headed by Colonel Acoca. These four nuns of the Cistercian convent of the strict observance get trapped in the hands of Jaime Miro, a basque rebel wanted by the GOE. As it turns out, a slip of the tongue during a conversation with the nuns leads to a predicament which forces Jaime Miro to carry along the four nuns with his gang and escort them to their destination.

Henceforth, the lot splits to travel in different groups taking different routes, thereby evading the watchful GOE army led by Colonel Acoca. The rest of the story is all about how this journey goes on, taking unpredictable turns.

First of all, I loved this fascinating plot and the sub plots by Sidney Sheldon. Sidney Sheldon has proven (again) that he is such a master of dialogues and plot twisting. The characterization of the nuns and their background stories in spaced flashbacks were fun and riveting. I felt the novel getting a bit lewd quite unnecessarily a few times, as it would generally in most Sheldon works. Sidney Sheldon’s sarcasms and wit were pretty much present here as well and were amusing. Then, the climax was excellent. I was taken by surprise absolutely. I predicted a tragic end, but Sheldon made me smile with a happy one!!!

Must say, I liked this novel. It has successfully lived up to my expectations off the master story teller.