Reading matters

'Nefertiti' by Michelle Moran

Fiction - paperback; Quercus; 528 pages; 2007. REVIEW COPY.

Nefertiti is one of ancient Egypt's most legendary rulers. She was the Second Wife of the heretic king Akhenaten and, as Queen, had just as much influence and status as her husband. Renowned for her extraordinary beauty, she was more than a pretty face -- as this compelling novel by Michelle Moran demonstrates.

In fact, the Nefertiti presented in this book is not exactly the most likeable of characters. She's manipulative, calculating and shrewd. Despite the fact she was chosen to marry Akhenaten because everyone believed she was level-headed enough to tame his erratic, egotistical tendencies, she does the exact opposite. When her husband marks his rule by elevating a minor god, Aten, to a position of power, obliterating Amun and destroying all of Amun's temples, she doesn't bat an eyelid but actually encourages him to make further irregular and unpopular decisions.

And if that wasn't enough, she's riddled by jealousy over the Pharoah's First Wife, Kiya, who has already given birth to a son and heir, and does whatever she can to bed her husband in an attempt to produce the next prince -- with mixed results.

All the while Nefertiti's younger sister, Mutnodjmet (Mutny), is treated like a slave who must obey the Queen's every whim. As she watches Egypt become besieged by religious and cultural changes that she is powerless to stop, Mutny dreams of the day she can escape the clutches of the Royal Family so that she can live a quiet life, growing herbs and other plants in her own little oasis. When she falls in love with the General Nakhtmin, she thinks she may have found her "get out clause", but alas, Nefertiti doesn't exactly see it that way...

'The Yacoubian Building' by Alaa As Aswany

Fiction - hardcover; Fourth Estate; 272  pages; 2007. (Translated from the Arabic  by Humphrey Davies.)

The Yacoubian Building has been a best seller in its native Egypt and throughout the Arabic world since publication in 2002. It was translated into English in 2004 but has come to more prominent attention because it was made into a film of the same name last year. This hardcover edition was published in 2007.

Set in downtown Cairo at the time of the 1990 Gulf War, this intriguing novel shows modern Egyptian life through the eyes of a diverse range of characters, all of whom live in an apartment block called the Yacoubian Building.