Naguib Mahfouz was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. His nearly forty novels and hundreds of short stories range from re-imaginings of ancient myths to subtle commentaries on contemporary Egyptian politics and culture. Of his many works, most famous is The Cairo Trilogy, consisting of Palace Walk (1956), Palace of Desire (1957), and Sugar Street (1957), which focuses on a Cairo family through three generations, from 1917 until 1952. In 1988, he was the first writer in Arabic to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. He died in August 2006.
Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth
by Tagreid Abu-Hassabo (Other), Najib Mahfuz, Naguib Mahfouz, Tagreid Abu-Hassabo (Translator)
Paperback
$14.95
- ISBN-13: 9780385499095
- Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Publication date: 04/28/2000
- Pages: 176
- Sales rank: 154,355
- Product dimensions: 5.13(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.48(d)
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From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author of the Cairo Trilogy, comes Akhenaten, a fascinating work of fiction about the most infamous pharaoh of ancient Egypt.
In this beguiling novel, originally published in Arabic in 1985, Mahfouz tells with extraordinary insight the story of the "heretic pharaoh," or "sun king,"—the first known monotheistic ruler—whose iconoclastic and controversial reign during the 18th Dynasty (1540-1307 B.C.) has uncanny resonance with modern sensibilities. Narrating the novel is a young man with a passion for the truth, who questions the pharaoh's contemporaries after his horrible death—including Akhenaten's closest friends, his most bitter enemies, and finally his enigmatic wife, Nefertiti—in an effort to discover what really happened in those strange, dark days at Akhenaten's court. As our narrator and each of the subjects he interviews contribute their version of Akhenaten, "the truth" becomes increasingly evanescent. Akhenaten encompasses all of the contradictions his subjects see in him: at once cruel and empathic, feminine and barbaric, mad and divinely inspired, his character, as Mahfouz imagines him, is eerily modern, and fascinatingly ethereal. An ambitious and exceptionally lucid and accessible book, Akhenaten is a work only Mahfouz could render so elegantly, so irresistibly.
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From the Publisher
Praise for Naguib Mahfouz:"The greatest writer in one of the most widely understood languages in the world, a storyteller of the first order in any idiom." —Vanity Fair
"A Dickens of the Cairo cafes." —Newsweek
"The incredible variety of Naguib Mahfouz's writings continue to dazzle our eyes." —The Washington Post
"Naguib Mahfouz virtually invented the novel as an Arab form. He excels at fusing deep emotion and soap opera." —The New York Times Book Review
"Mahfouz's work is freshly nuanced and hauntingly lyrical. The Nobel Prize acknowledges the universal significance of his fiction." —Los Angeles Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly
Nobel-winning Egyptian novelist Mahfouz (The Cairo Trilogy) appropriates, to wonderful effect, the craft of the biographer in these 14 elegant fictional testimonies on the brief but dazzling reign of the "heretic" pharaoh Akhenaten and his enigmatic queen, Nefertiti. First published in Arabic in 1985, newly translated into English, the narrative comprises many subjective versions of the early religious zealot Akhenaten's rule. Twenty years after the end of his reign, witnesses, royalty and relatives recount their stories to a young nobleman's son, Meriamun, who professes a passion for unearthing the truth. The particulars of Akhenaten's reign are unquestioned: the son of the great pharaoh Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye, Akhenaten is a sickly, irreverent and spiritually inclined young man who ascends the throne when his brother dies. Inspired by religious visions, Akhenaten scorns Egypt's traditional pantheism and declares his devotion to the One and Only God. When his fervor leads him to decree that his religion shall be Egypt's creed, the pharaoh offends the all-powerful priests and invites civil dissension and foreign invasion. Eventually, he dies alone in his deserted city. Some of the narrators remain sympathetic to Akhenaten, including the heartbroken former royal sculptor Bek, who designed the shining new city of Aketaten. The High Priest of Amun, on the other hand, bitterly rues the era of the "mad king," while Ay, father of Nefertiti and former counselor to Akhenaten, diplomatically vacillates. The record culminates with Nefertiti's impassioned confession, though intentionally readers are left wondering: Which point of view are we supposed to believe? The making of history, like fiction, dwells in its infinite ramifications, and Mahfouz, ever the masterly stylist, accomplishes his lesson flawlessly. (Mar.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|
KLIATT
Fascinated by the abandoned city of the Pharoah Akhenaten, young Meriamun sets out to find the truth about the ruler. Armed with letters of introduction from his respected father and a willingness to listen without judging, he interviews Akhenaten's contemporaries. Each conveys his own views and prejudices. Some brand the Pharoah heretic for his beliefs in only one god, others call him mad, still others believe in one god too. All speak of his abandonment by Nefertiti at the end. Finally Meriamun interviews the former Queen of Egypt, still a beautiful woman. He learns of her true love for Akhenaten and the real reason she left to become an exile in her own palace. In this fascinating story about a fascinating man, Mahfouz lets the reader see all the contradictions surrounding a true believer. Akhenaten never wavered in his belief, thinking all would come in time to see as he did. This is a beautifully written novel by the Nobel Laureate, ably translated by Tagreid Abu-Hassabo. For all those fascinated with ancient Egypt. KLIATT Codes: A—Recommended for advanced students, and adults. 1998, Random House/Anchor, 168p, 21cm, 99-056659, $12.00. Ages 17 to adult. Reviewer: Susan E. Chmurynsky; Media Spec., E. Kentwood Freshman Campus, Kentwood, MI, September 2000 (Vol. 34 No. 5)