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A Novel
by Michelle Moran
Book Reviewed by:Michelle Moran's love affair with
Egypt began in the summer of 1998 while on an
archaeological dig in Israel. The team she was
working with uncovered an ancient Egyptian scarab
(scarab beetles were sacred in ancient Egypt, and
ceramic, stone or cut gem scarabs were used as
talismans and a symbol of the soul). The site of
this mysterious lapis stone in the dirt triggered a
yearning to discover more about ancient Egypt.
Not long after she was wandering through the
Egyptian museum in Berlin when she came across the
famous bust of
Nefertiti (discovered in 1912) and she began to
wonder what this famous queen's life would have been
like. She found considerable nonfiction written
about Nefertiti but could find no fictionalized
accounts exclusively about her reign.
Two years later, spurred on by Nefertiti's story she
visited Egypt and started gathering books and data
which would form the basis of her fictionalized
account of Nefertiti's life.
While the key players and many of the events in
Nefertiti are a matter of historical record,
such as Akhenaten's obsession with the sun-god Aten
and his desire to build a divinely inspired city
that would eclipse Thebes; how the key players
thought and acted, and many of the details are
necessarily conjecture.
Although the accuracy of some aspects of the big
picture are questionable, it's the little details
about everyday and royal life that bring
Nefertiti to live, such as the "Nubian" wigs
worn by the royal family (big afro hairdos) which
were held in place with bees wax and resin, and that
the Pharaoh's sandals had pictures of his enemies
on the bottom - so that he stepped on them wherever he
walked!
In short, this is an addictively engrossing epic
that brings to life a fascinating time and place - a
good choice for book clubs and lovers of historical
fiction.
Coming Soon: The Heretic Queen, a sequel to Nefertiti, publishing is September 2008.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in July 2007, and has been updated for the
June 2008 edition.
Click here to go to this issue.
If you liked Nefertiti, try these:
by Paula McLain
Published 2016
The extraordinary adventures of a woman before her time, the exhilaration of freedom and its cost, and the tenacity of the human spirit.
The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt
by Toby Wilkinson
Published 2013
In this landmark work, one of the world’s most renowned Egyptologists tells the epic story of this great civilization, from its birth as the first nation-state to its final absorption into the Roman Empire—three thousand years of wild drama, bold spectacle, and unforgettable characters.
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