A fascinating book indeed: "The Pharaoh's Daughter" by Mesu Andrews
Check out my review of "The Pharaoh's Daughter", courtesy of CFBA!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Biblical fiction is her favorite genre to read and write. Her first novel, Love Amid the Ashes (Revell, 2011), tells the story of Job and won the 2012 ECPA Book of the Year for a Debut Author.
ABOUT THE BOOK
I’m trying not to cry. Pharaoh’s daughters don’t cry.
When we make our way down the tiled hall, I try to stop at ummi Kiya’s chamber. I know her spirit has flown yet I long for one more moment. Amenia pushes me past so I keep walking and don’t look back.
Like the waters of the Nile, I will flow.
Anippe has grown up in the shadows of Egypt’s good god Pharaoh, aware that Anubis, god of the afterlife, may take her or her siblings at any moment. She watched him snatch her mother and infant brother during childbirth, a moment which awakens in her a terrible dread of ever bearing a child. Now she is to be become the bride of Sebak, a kind but quick-tempered Captain of Pharaoh Tut’s army. In order to provide Sebak the heir he deserves and yet protect herself from the underworld gods, Anippe must launch a series of deceptions, even involving the Hebrew midwives—women ordered by Tut to drown the sons of their own people in the Nile.
When she finds a baby floating in a basket on the great river, Anippe believes Egypt’s gods have answered her pleas, entrenching her more deeply in deception and placing her and her son Mehy, whom handmaiden Miriam calls Moses, in mortal danger.
As bloodshed and savage politics shift the balance of power in Egypt, the gods reveal their fickle natures and Anippe wonders if her son, a boy of Hebrew blood, could one day become king. Or does the god of her Hebrew servants, the one they call El Shaddai, have a different plan—for them all?
If you would like to read the first chapter of Pharaoh's Daughter, go HERE.
Copies of the book can be purchased at this link: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1601425996
MY REVIEW...
Mesu Andrews has crafted a fascinating historical book in "The Pharaoh's Daughter". She has brought to vivid life a Biblical character that I am sad to admit I have not given a whole lot of thought to in the past, the story of the woman who raised Moses. The meticulous research she has carried out is evident in all of the little details that grace the pages and bring richer undertones to the story. The characters are complex and unique, and I have a much greater sympathy for the family who gave up Moses to the Nile, as well as for the woman who claimed Moses as her son after rescuing him from the bulrushes. Reading about the horrors that the Hebrews experienced as a result of slavery from the perspective of characters I grew to care about gave me a new appreciation for what they endured. I also admire the fact that they (or a least a remnant of them) remained faithful to God in the midst of their pain and suffering. Although the Bible is not clear about what exactly happened to Pharaoh's daughter and what her experience would have been in raising Moses and then watching God bring the Israelites out of Egypt (not depicted in this first book of the series), it is certainly interesting to consider. I can only hope that in real life Pharaoh's daughter did indeed encounter the one true God and find hope and peace in his arms!
Andrews is a wonderful author and I greatly enjoyed this first book in the "Treasures of the Nile" series. The writing is masterful, the characters are dynamic, and the story will remain on my mind long after I've closed the pages. I give this book a solid rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars.
Book has been provided courtesy of the publisher, WaterBrook Press, and the CFBA, for the purposes of this unbiased review.
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