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From Publishers Weekly
Nobel-winningEgyptian novelist Mahfouz (The Cairo Trilogy) appropriates, towonderful effect, the craft of the biographer in these 14 elegantfictional 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 earlyreligious zealot Akhenaten's rule. Twenty years after the end ofhis reign, witnesses, royalty and relatives recount their storiesto a young nobleman's son, Meriamun, who professes a passion forunearthing the truth. The particulars of Akhenaten's reign areunquestioned: the son of the great pharaoh Amenhotep III and QueenTiye, Akhenaten is a sickly, irreverent and spiritually inclinedyoung man who ascends the throne when his brother dies. Inspired byreligious visions, Akhenaten scorns Egypt's traditional pantheismand declares his devotion to the One and Only God. When his fervorleads him to decree that his religion shall be Egypt's creed, thepharaoh offends the all-powerful priests and invites civildissension and foreign invasion. Eventually, he dies alone in hisdeserted city. Some of the narrators remain sympathetic toAkhenaten, including the heartbroken former royal sculptor Bek, whodesigned the shining new city of Aketaten. The High Priest of Amun,on the other hand, bitterly rues the era of the "mad king," whileAy, father of Nefertiti and former counselor to Akhenaten,diplomatically vacillates. The record culminates with Nefertiti'simpassioned confession, though intentionally readers are leftwondering: Which point of view are we supposed to believe? Themaking of history, like fiction, dwells in its infiniteramifications, and Mahfouz, ever the masterly stylist, accomplisheshis lesson flawlessly. (Mar.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Back Cover
Praise for Naguib Mahfouz:

"The greatest writer in one of the most widely understood languagesin the world, a storyteller of the first order in anyidiom."--Vanity Fair

From Publishers 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 Reed Business Information, Inc. 
 
From the Back Cover 
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 cafés." --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 
 
From Booklist 
In a novel set during the eleventh century B.C., Mahfouz details
the story of a young boy, Meriamum, who seeks to uncover the
"truth" about the titular character, the recently deceased pharaoh.
Akhenaten, Egypt's first monotheistic ruler, endured a
controversial reign, during which he struggled to impart his divine
vision to an unwilling nation. Armed with a letter of introduction,
Meriamum is granted interviews with those closest to the pharaoh: a
diverse array of characters that include the high priest, childhood
friends, soldiers, a harem member, and finally Nefertiti,
Akhenaten's wife. As Meriamum pieces together the disparate
accounts, both he and the reader are given a fascinating glimpse of
Akhenaten, a man compelled to follow his faith no matter how
disastrous the consequences. Mahfouz populates his engrossing novel
with characters that are believably human and flawed; their
conflicts with religion and politics have a timeless quality to
which readers will respond. Although some might complain that the
content of the interviews often becomes repetitive, readers
interested in ancient Egypt will find this book immensely
appealing. Brendan Dowling

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内容简介

From the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and author ofthe Cairo trilogy, comes Akhenaten, a fascinating work offiction about the most infamous pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

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 new novel, originally published in 1985 and now
appearing for the first time in the United States, Mahfouz tells
with extraordinary insight the story of the "heretic pharaoh," or
"sun king,"--and 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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作者简介

NAGUIB MAHFOUZ was born in Cairo in 1911 and began writing when he was seventeen. The author of more than thirty novels and fourteen collections of short stories, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for 1988.

Mahfouz lives with his family in the Cairo suburb of Agouza.

目　　录

The Beginning
The High Priest of Amun
Ay
Haremhab
Bek
Tadukhipa
Toto
Tey
Mutnedjmet
Meri-Ra
Mae
Maho
Nakht
Bento

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