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I am offering this as a possible nomination and if its link to the topic is too tenuous then I don’t mind if it should be withdrawn. I do think that it resonates with some of the key words in the topic.
The Sleeper In the Sands by Tom Holland
“As Howard Carter prepares to open the tomb of Tutankhamen, he broods on a variety of mysterious warnings. The most specific of these warnings takes the form of tales within tales within tales--tales of the mediaeval caliph Omar and his private physician, and tales of the Times of Ignorance, of the heretic pharaoh and the reasons why he rejected the gods of his fathers. . . the particular spins [Holland] puts on his own standard mythologies are ingenious, as is the way that he juggles known facts and standard theories to fit those spins. He creates a telling atmosphere of suspense in which we find ourselves caring in different ways about a social- climbing scholar, a warrior sick of killing and a princess desperate to survive on her own terms in a hostile court. Above all, this is ingenious in its use of the story-telling formulae of the Thousand Nights and One Night to tell a story that unfolds like a poisonous flower and sweeps us backwards and forwards through abysses of time and human anguish.” --Roz Kaveney
£3.65 Amazon UK €3.99 Apple Books Europe $4.44 Amazon.com
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