If I were to recommend only one novel about the Amarna Period to anyone, it would be this slender novel by Naguib Mahfouz. This is not because I enjoyed it the most, or because it was the most exciting. It is because it is by a Nobel Prize winner and, more importantly, an actual Egyptian.
The novel is written in a Rashomon style, with the literary care that most ancient Egyptian historical novels lack. There is no dwelling on splendid palace grounds, lush ancient nights or grand monuments; Mahfouz felt no need for this. The evanescence and delicacy of his straightforward prose is enough. Salacious details and invented love triangles are beneath him. He worked with the archaeological evidence known best to him at the time.
However, like archaeological evidence, the novel itself leaves one strangely unsatisfied, and wishing that there had been more.
Writer, mouthless and mumbling
L.T. Patridge
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