Originally published 1944
This edition published by Harper Collins Publishers 2017
ISBN 978—0-00-819632-5
262 pages
Grade 4/5
Will I read more of this author: yes absolutely.
Genre: crime
Keywords: ancient Egypt 2000BC, dysfunctional family, authoritative father, controlling behavior, manipulation, emotional blackmail, murders, sibling rivalries.
Place and time: ancient Egypt 2000BC, i.e., 4000 years ago:
Renisenb is young recently widowed and therefor has returned with her young daughter to her father’s rich household. She marvels at the static situation of the household after eight years of absence. The women’s quarter: never quiet, never peaceful, always talking, exclaiming, saying things, not doing them. The women are her brothers’ wives, Satipy and Kait and their children, her grandmother Esa, and her late mother’s spinster sister, Henet and of course an army of slavers and servants. When the book starts her father, Imhotep, the Ka-priest, is away on business in the north. Renisenb’s two older brothers, Yahmose and Sobek, are taking care of the estate together with Hori the scribble; the younger brother Ipy, their father’s favorite, is allowed to run wild.
The book is told by Renisenb, we follow her development from a naïve unthinking girl to a thinking observing person, who admires her grandmother’s insights and wisdom; she realizes how ridiculous her father in his self-importance.
Her father returns home with a concubine, Nofert a young, very beautiful woman who is world-wise having travelled the known world with her father; the whole household units against the new woman.
For a cozy-crime novel a lot of murders happen, some more expected than others. Like in many other crime novels the main investigators gather all suspects together to see how they respond, because there is no forensics only observations of behaviour.
QUOTES:
Renisenb: I am a person as well as a woman (p102)
Fear is incomplete knowledge (p176)
Renisenb looked from one woman to the other. Hate in one face. Love in the other. Which she wondered was the more terrible? (p236)
MY THOUGHTS:
The story is about a dysfunction family with a father who decides everything, belittles his sons, do not trust the two oldest brothers who manage the estate. The father is a stupid man (his mother’s words) and can be bought by flattery; as the youngest son has understood and played on all the time.
There are two worlds, the women and children separated from the male world. I enjoyed reading the book, good person descriptions and household (~Agatha Christie). I was surprised by who the murderer was. I liked Renisenb, Asa and Hori, the main investigators.
Living in Israel and having visited Bedouin tents that also has a women’s quarter occupied by the man’s up-to-four-wives and their children. So even if the book is situated 4000 years ago, I can easily imagine how the desert dwelling on the Nile of then, could be quite similar to what we see here today in the traditional nomad culture.
Did I learn about ancient Egypt? Perhaps not so much. The author used the names of the gods of then. Some years ago we saw the exhibition in Los Angeles of King Tut (Tutankhamen) who reigned 1332-1323 BC that is 600 years after the book; my photos do show how rich their world was.
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