Each chapter is based on a different person's perception of Akhenaten, all of which were a love-or-hate-relationship based mainly on beliefs that had little or no true basis. The narrator is supposed to be interviewing their opinion on the "heretic" but never really seems to draw his own conclusion. Thus the book seems unfinished. ( )

This a wonderful (if a little short) tale of the reign of Akhenaten, told by those closest to him to a scribe in search of the truth. It shines the light on a period about which we know many isolated facts, but the whole truth remains a mystery. It's also a pointed reminder that "the truth" is never black and white, but dependent on our own perspectives and prejudices.

This is the first book by Naguib Mahfouz that I've read. His prose is elegantly simple and effective, and the translation (thankfully) does it justice. Highly recommended if you have any interest in Egypt's history.

I liked and didn't like this book. Maybe something got lost in translation, but I don't think that's the only reason I found it a bit flat.

I like the format: interview all the main players, and some minor ones, who surrounded the "heretic" Pharaoh Akhenaten during his rule and downfall. Each tells the story from his or her viewpoint, and soon the reader realizes that almost every narrator is colouring the story to make him or herself look good. You begin to read subsequent narrations sceptically, and start trying to piece together the "real" story. This is Mahfouz's intention: to let the reader decide whose version is "right."

This "tailoring" of the story is most clear in the stories of the political players -- characters like the High Priest of Amun, or Horemhab, or Ay. If the reader knows that both Ay and Horemhab (or Horemheb) became Pharaohs in their turn after Tutankhamun died, the eyebrows are raised pretty high at these men's protestation of devotion to Akhenaten, and their claims that they only abandoned him to save his life and save the kingdom.

Meanwhile, the ones who don't seem to tailor their story are the fervent believers. Toto, a priest of Amun who infiltrated Akhenaten's court, couldn't care less how he comes across; he's just so sure of his own righteousness that he barrels along, spewing hatred with every breath. Meri-Ra, who had been high priest of Akhenaten's god, still believes in that god. This is potentially dangerous, so one suspects that he, too, is being honest. The reader feels that these two, at least, might give some clue to the "real" story, if only their accounts can be reconciled.

The blurb on the book claims that "Akhenaten emerges as a charismatic enigma," but in fact it is Nefertiti whose role is most intriguing. Every narrator has an opinion about her, positive or negative, and opinions about her faith or lack of it, her fidelity or lack of it, and so on. Every narrator acknowledges that she was very politically astute, but everything else is left open. More and more, the reader looks forward to the final interview, with Nefertiti herself.

And here's where I had the problem. Meri-Ra, Akhenaten's hight priest, tells the interviewer, "You did not start this journey for no reason." I expected that not only would there be some climax of informtion during the interview with Nefertiti, but that we would learn something pertinent about the interviewer himself. I actually suspected we might find out that he was Moses (even though the timeline would have been somewhat off).

Yet nothing happened. Nefertiti, like all the others, told her story, made herself look good, and didn't resolve anything or bring up any intriguing twist to make the reader rethink anything. So the entire book was narration. stop. narration. stop. narration. stop. final stop. The exercise was interesting, to watch so many people describe the same events so differently. But in the end, it just dropped flat. ( )

I started this book a little reluctantly; I've never been one of those who are fascinated by the heretic pharaoh, and The Egyptian turned me off silly imagined reconstructions of the period.

I was very pleasantly surprised to be instantly involved in the story of the young scribe who seeks out & interviews the main players of the Amarna age. Mahfouz obviously researched the period intensely, and his ancient Egyptians are very believable. The contrasting voices of his characters make this a delightful read.

There was only one, forgivable error - the Egyptians went to great lengths to erase the memory of Akhenaton - deserting his city, removing him (and the following two kings) from the lists of Egypt's kings, defacing his tomb, and removing his name wherever they could find it engraved. It isn't credible that a proper Egyptian father would encourage his son to dig the story up and record it for posterity. Still, without that, there would be no story, and that would have been a terrible shame. I'm sure I'll return to this book several times. ( )

The story of this heretic's life, told through the voices of those who knew him -- given the fact that so little is known, the author has structured an interesting portrait.