Nefertiti

Buon libro.

Book arrived in good condition. Story very well researched and well written. Through an interesting story, one can learn a great dealof background detail about the mysterious reign of Pharaoh Ankenaten and his Queen Nerfertiti and how his actions affected thenation of Egypt. It is definitely possible to have both an entertaining novel and learn at the same time!

Die aktuelle Berichterstattung über weitere Funde/Entschlüsselungen macht das Buch noch spannender. Hier findet sich eine süffisant geschriebene, spannende Geschichte der schönsten Frau der Welt, viele Hintergrundinformationen, manchmal auch etwas Spekulation, aber immer mit Begründung. Sehr bunt, detailiert und farbig. Manchmal vermisse ich wohl ein kleines Glossar, aber auch so ist es verständlich. Ein sehr packendes Buch, das man in einem Zug durchlesen möchte und das die Erwartungen auf den Nachfolgeroman mächtig ansteigen lassen!

This is a wonderful and powerful novel about one of the most powerful royal couples in Ancient Egypt. The story opens in the royal city of Thebes, where Pharoah and his family and courtiers are in mourning for the recently deceased Crown Prince Tuthmosis. Now his younger brother Amunhotep is the heir to the throne and must choose a Chief Wife as his queen. His mother, Queen Tiye, chooses her feisty niece Nefertiti, in the hope that she will be strong enough to rein in his arrogance and destructive tendencies and shape him into a good ruler.The story is narrated by Nefertiti's quiet younger half-sister Mutnodjmet, who helps her sister to ready herself to travel to Thebes, and experiences for herself the delights of the royal palace and the luxury that comes with being the sister of the king's Chief Wife. But it soon becomes clear that Nefertiti is being corrupted by the power and ambition of her husband, and rather than keeping him in check she only encourages him, supporting him as he goes against thousands of years of Egyptian tradition, elevating a new God above the old protectors of Egypt, rejecting his first wife Kiya, destroying the temples and building the new royal city of Amarna to glorify Aten and turn the royal couple into deities. Families are destroyed, corruption runs rife and the outskirts of Egypt are threatened by invasion, but Pharaoh is too busy in his vain pursuits to notice anything outside of his own palace. Nefertiti's beauty and charisma enchant her people and her husband alike, but her selfish nature leads to a rift between the two sisters that will tear them apart and echo throughout Egypt. Ultimately, the inevitable happens, and despite her family's desperate attempts to avert crisis, Mutnodjmet can only watch in horror as the great empire of Akhenaten and Nefertiti self-destructs in a gripping and heartbreaking climax as Egypt fights back to reclaim its history.This is a brilliant piece of storytelling. It is brilliantly researched, and although some fictional liberties have been taken (acknowledged openly by the author at the end of the book) it is so well grounded in fact that it hardly matters. The family tree at the start of the book was particularly useful in keeping track of family connections and grasping difficult names. Moran has entwined all that is known about the royal court of the Heretic King, as well as historical theory and intelligent guesswork, to create a complex and riveting novel full of delicious detail that brings the exotic Ancient Egyptian cities, palaces and domestic households to life. It is a whirlwind journey through the reign of perhaps the most famous Egyptian Queen of all time, spiralling along with her ambition until the sudden, violent and extremely moving collapse of the empire which shatters the reader even as it shatters Amarna. I savoured every moment of it - I was transported away from the British autumn into the warm, spiced Egyptian sunshine, cried bitterly all the way through the ending, and finished the book feeling slightly shell-shocked and more than a little sad that it had ended - always the mark of a brilliant novel.I look forward to reading Moran's next novel, 'The Heretic Queen', this time about Nefertiti's niece, Mutnodjmet's daughter Nefertari, who married Ramses II and continued the family's connection to the royal throne...

Very interesting story. Enjoyed the whole book.