Book Review: "Neferura: A Novel"
Malayna Evans' debut novel gives readers a fascinating portrait of one of the most enigmatic women of the ancient world: Neferura, the daughter of Hatshepsut.
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Warning: Spoilers for the book follow.
I’ve long thought that ancient Egypt has drawn a bit of a short stick when it comes to historical fiction. With some notable exceptions, there are far fewer books set in this period of history than, say, ancient Greece or Rome. I suppose that makes sense, since the Egyptians tend to be much further removed from the present than its successors. This is precisely what makes Neferura, the new novel from Malayna Evans such an extraordinary blessing. Well, that and the fact that it’s about the daughter of one of the most famous (one might say infamous) women of the ancient world: Hatshepsut, the extraordinary woman who ruled Egypt in her own right for two decades.
When the novel begins Neferura is relatively secure as her mother’s daughter and one of the most powerful priestesses in the land. However, with great power comes great responsibility and not a few challenges, and these challenges come to the fore once her half-brother, Thuthmose, returns from his exile and begins angling for his own power. It soon becomes clear that there is very little that he won’t do when it comes to reclaiming the patrimony that he (rightly, to be fair) believes has been stolen from him. As she contends with the threat he poses to her life and her mother’s reign, Neferura will have to use all of her considerable political and intellectual gifts to stay alive.
Neferura pulls off a delicate balancing between, on the one hand, the title character's political maneuvering and, on the other, her personal relationships. She has a particularly vexed dynamic with her powerful mother who, as a result of her position at the top of the political hierarchy, tends to view all things through the lens of pragmatism and how any given action or behavior will reflect on her legacy. This is understandable given the extraordinary nature of her position as a female pharaoh, but it makes life difficult for the young woman standing in her shadow. Evans excels at giving us insight into what it might have been like to be so close to power and yet unable to wield it oneself, doomed to be always overshadowed by a powerful mother who had to go to desperate measures to stay alive and keep her rule stable.
As much as Neferura might chafe at her mother’s influence over her life, her true enemy is her half-brother (and later husband) Thutmose, who hates both of them for the fact that he has been shunted to the side for most of his life. He makes for a compelling and terrifying figure in Neferura’s life, always threatening that he could literally destroy her if he should desire to do so. Even though his greatest accomplishments are on the field of battle, he repeatedly proves that he’s no slouch when it comes to politics either. He has used his time away from court to hone his claws and his ire, and by the time he returns he is vengeance personified. Any time that he appears, you pretty much know that something awful is going to happen.
Despite all of the odds that are stacked against her, Neferura is no shrinking violet, however. Throughout the novel she proves again and again that she is a formidable force in her own right and that she will take action when it is required. Grief, as it turns out, is a remarkable motivator, and so is betrayal, and she experiences more than her fair share of both as the novel proceeds and Thuthmose continues to tighten his hold on the throne. Fortunately for her, there are many other women who are willing to join in her cause and, in fact, it’s precisely the power of the feminine and the ability of women to move through the shadows and in-between spaces of a patriarchal world that allows them to have such power.
Those of a more historical bent will no doubt recall that there is no clear record of what happened to Neferura, whether she was in fact the mother of Thutmose’s child or when she died. This gives Evans a great deal of license when it comes to her fiction and, in her telling, the cunning princess managed to escape the net of death closing around her thanks both her own cleverness and the intervention of a wisewoman and her circle of spies. It’s a neat little literary trick, and it works remarkably well. I personally found it a bit surprising, since I was beginning to think that we were going to have to say goodbye to this extraordinary woman by the end of the book. Sometimes the ambiguities of history mean that we can grant our heroines the ends they deserved rather than the ones they actually had.
Overall, I quite enjoyed Neferura. It’s briskly paced, but it still slows down enough to give us a fascinating glimpse into the life of one of antiquity’s most enigmatic and mysterious young women. Hatshepsut may not come off as a particularly sympathetic figure in this telling, but that’s to be expected. The bonds between mothers and daughters are always complicated and thorny, and all the more so when one of them happens to be the most powerful person in the country (and perhaps even the world at this point). Neferura, likewise, contains multitudes, and while she may be our protagonist, it’s also easy to get frustrated with her, which is as it should be.
Moreover, the novel expertly shows the extent to which women of various stations were more than capable of flouting the bounds placed upon them by the patriarchal societies in which they lived. Whether it’s Neferura or the wisewoman Hathor or the servant Iset or Neferura herself, these are women who understand well how power works and are capable of pulling the levers they need to survive. Evans, who earned a PhD in Egyptian history, manages to strike the right balance between providing historical detail and not getting bogged down. She also has a keen grasp of narrative, and Neferura’s story keeps us hooked from the beginning to the end.
Suffice it to say that I loved this book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who, like me, always keeps one foot in the ancient world.