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Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth (Paperback)

by Naguib Mahfouz (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Price: £8.99 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group (1 May 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0385499094
  • ISBN-13: 978-0385499095
  • Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 13 x 1.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 469,157 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #21 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > M > Mahfouz, Naguib
    #56 in  Books > Fiction > World > Arabic

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Product Description

Review

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 caf s." --"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"


Synopsis

After the death of Akhenaten, a young man searches for the truth about the "heretic pharaoh," interviewing Akhenaten's closest friends, most dangerous enemies, and even his enigmatic wife, Nefertiti, about the remarkable leader of ancient Egypt, in a fictional portrait of the eighteenthdynasty phar

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Customer Reviews

5 Reviews
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2 star:
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Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (5 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Utterly Fanciful, 13 Dec 2007
By Gordon Eldridge (Southport, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
It is difficult to determine what this novel is trying to be. As a piece of historical fiction it is utterly fanciful. Writers of historical novels must always choose from the evidence available to support their literary interpretation of history. In this case, however, Mahfouz (an otherwise talented writer) blatantly ignores the weight of historical evidence. Among other things, Akhenaten did not invent a new god. He decided that the worship of the Aten (a manifestation of the sun god Re) should prevail over Egypt's other gods. The city of Akhetaten was not abandoned before Akhenaten's death (at least it is extremely unlikely that this was the case). Evidence suggests that Tutankhamun initially reigned from Akhetaten. As these events are pivotal to the narrative rewriting the evidence is perhaps forgivable, but a historical novel must at least attempt to be true to the ideas of the period. What we have in this novel is the imposition of modern ideas such as freedom of worship, personal faith in God etc. onto the ancient world. These concepts had no place in the religion of ancient Egypt. Even if we allow that Akhenaten had experienced an epiphany which allowed him to create these ideas, the story hinges on them being part of the fabric of ancient Egyptian thinking.

It is possible that the novel is not really trying to be a piece of historical fiction. Assuming Akhenaten did hold deep religious convictions that differed from the mainstream of his time, the conception of the novel, as a set of interviews with both enemies and friends, is a potentially interesting way to explore the trials of someone in his situation. On this level the novel holds some interest, but the viewpoints expressed are somewhat simplistic. The idea has potential, but it just doesn't quite work.
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27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Who was he?, 17 Oct 2002
By Elizabeth Taylor (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)      
This is a very interesting little book. It central theme is Akenaten the Sun King who was infamous as a pharaoh both for his rejection of the ancient religons but also in popular fiction for his wife Nefertitti. Akenaten however is not someone who appears in this book nor is this a potted piece of fiction outlinning his life. It is something more profound and with many parallels for any moment in human history. The narrator of the novel lives at a time not long after the death of Akenaten and he seeks the 'truth' behind the pharaoh's religon. The novel follows our narrator as he interviews living witnesses to the kings life, each chapter is a different interview/perspective on the events that took place. The points of view expressed are all completely different, some hate him, some love him, some admire him, some loath him, some don't understanded him however at the end of the novel we have a much more complete picture of a character than if we had read a fictional biography. Naguib Mahfouz has a wonderful way of writing, its easy to read and very simple yet it is beautiful in conveying profound meaning. At the end of the novel the reader is left to make their own mind up and to reflect that the life of the pharaoh who was vilified for his beliefs is as relevant today as it was more than 3000 years ago.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A fresh view of an old story., 31 Oct 2003
By Mary Whipple (New England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)   
In naming his novel Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, Nobel Prize-winning author Naguib Mahfouz signals his belief that Akhenaten's views of religion, the same views that led Akhenaten to be called the "heretic pharoah," show him to be more a man of our times than a man of his own times. Akhenaten, formerly Amenhotep IV, changed his name to reflect his belief that Aten, the sun god, was more powerful than Amen (Amun), the traditional god of the Egyptians, the god served by a huge and powerful class of priests and recognized as the Most High by the large Egyptian population. Following a mystical revelation, however, he also came to believe that there was a god even higher than Aten--One God, the Sole Creator, who was a god of love, forgiveness, and peace. In this respect, Akhenaten became a pharoah whose beliefs made him seem almost "like one of us."

When Akhenaten eventually prohibited the worship of any god other than the One God, he showed himself to be a zealot more interested in promoting his religious views than in ruling his large and diverse country, more a priest than a pharoah. Whether he was right or not became less important historically than the chaos his views created--the people became fragmented, the priests became infuriated at their sudden loss of political and social power, the enemies of the country saw their opportunity to attack, and the foundation of law and order crumbled in the ensuing cataclysm.

Mahfouz examines Akhenaten's life from the points of view of more than a dozen of his contemporaries, including the High Priest of the new religion, the High Priest of the old religion, Akhenaten's wife Nefertiti, his teacher and counselor, his chief of security, and his doctor, among others. Each gives a fresh view of who Akhenaten was, what he believed, and what his legacy might have been. Mahfouz offers a fascinating, cautionary story of what happens when the ruler of a large and diverse country uses his position of power to impose new religious thought on a highly developed and traditional culture. Mary Whipple

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A mortal battle for the control of the empire
The main character in this book tries to find out the real reasons behind the fall of pharaoh Akhenaten, who installed in Egypt a new religion with a single god, Aton, in the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Luc REYNAERT

5.0 out of 5 stars Heresy in ancient Egypt, truth in our own time
This is an intriguing book, purporting to set out to solve a millennia-old puzzle, but ending up as a beguiling case-study regarding truth and perception. Read more
Published on 9 Jan 2007 by S. Bailey

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