Mara, Daughter Of The Nile (1985) - Plot & Excerpts
"Then the stars went out, for the bark of Ra, in fiery splendor, burst out of the East. Sunshine flooded the wide desert and the long, green valley of the Nile. The night was over; a new day has dawned for the land of Egypt."Generally, I do not reread books. I have a short attention span, I constantly seek novelty, and once a book or a film has been watched, even if I greatly enjoyed it, I will never reach for it again. There are only a few books that I enjoy rereading, Mara, Daughter of the Nile has been one I have reached for repeatedly since I first read it and fell in love with it as a 12-year old girl. A few years ago, I donated a enormous amount of books after reluctantly admitting to myself that I will never touch them again after the initial reading: this book still occupies a place on my currently tiny and trimmed-down collection of paperbacks, and it's going nowhere.Call it nostalgia, if you will, but this is such a lovely little book, and it has occupied a dear space in my heart ever since. This is a solidly middle-grade novel, but I find that a great middle-grade novel is a wonderful thing. They are so essential to hook in a young reader and instill in them a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. These books have themes, they have believable, loveable, flawed characters. There's no psychoanalysis required of the characters, but they send such an important message to a young reader: you can be better than you think, you can be a good person, you can aim for higher than what you believe yourself capable. A small person can make a difference.The story is simple, the plot is straightforward. There is no overwhelming theme here of existence, no aspirations to grandeur, yet I love it just the same. I do confess to being a great fan of Ancient Egypt. The mythology, the people, the history; while I have read many books within this setting, telling stories of such exalted characters as Cleopatra, Nefertiti, King Tutankhamen, this wee book remains my favorite in the sadly rare genre of Egyptian fiction.Mara is a slave, she was not always one, but that has been her life for as long as she can remember. She is a foreign-born slave, captured with her late mother; Mara has blue eyes, which is reviled and feared by her master, and is different from most slaves in that she has been previously educated in reading and writing. She also has a more valuable commodity: the ability to speak Babylonian. It is for this purpose that Queen Hatshepsut's man initially buys her; she is to spy upon Prince Thutmose through his future bride. Mara is to play the interpreter for Princess the Canaanite princess, Inanni.Through a twist of fate, Mara ends up playing the unwilling double agent, with none the wiser. She ends up being a pawn for Lord Sheftu, who is working secretly in support of placing Prince Thutmose on the throne in place of his devious, destructive pharaoh sister, Queen Hatshepsut.Mara has no choice. She cannot reveal her role to either. To do so would be to risk death, truly, for the life of a slave is worth absolutely nothing to such powerful and wealthy men. Eventually, though, Mara has to choose a side, and one of her masters will prove himself to be a truly idealistic man, who is working towards a better future for Egypt. To get to her happy ending, Mara must rely on her own wits throughout the intrigue, throughout the danger. She has to overcome her own prejudices, and decide whether luxury and freedom is preferable to doing what she knows is right...despite the fact that it could cost her everything, including her life.I loved Mara's determination. Yes, she is selfish initially, but this is a girl who has been a slave, mistreated, ill-fed, feared for her freakish colored eyes, of all things. She has endured hardship, beating, and so when she is given a chance at freedom, she takes it. And boy does she love what that little taste of freedom has to bring. "[The clothes] were not too lavish...but to her it was unimaginable luxury. And as she shook the garments out one by one and looked at them, she felt again the fierce determination that nothing, nobody must stand in the way of her possessing such things always, freedom and gold and a life worth living---gardens with lotus blooming in the fishpool...rows and rows of papyrus scrolls on the shelves in a beautiful room.So she dreamed."Mara is not perfect; despite being a slave, she feels herself to be a true Egyptian, and looks down upon the foreign princess Inanni. Mara is patronizing towards Inanni's full figure, which is admired by her people, but reviled by the Egyptians, who prefer a slim silhouette. Inanni's strange clothes, her customs, her fear towards anything Egyptian is viewed condescendingly by the haughty Mara. Eventually, Mara grows to realize her own faults, and realizes that she has been underestimating her princess' strengths. There is some romance in here, nothing too steamy, nothing inappropriate at all for the middle-grade audience. It grows step by step, there is no insta-love, as enemies grow to be friends, and then perhaps something more.I absolutely loved the bits of Egyptian culture in this book. The descriptions of food, of customs, of cosmetics and clothing, of daily minutiae. I don't find that the adult novels of this nature does so well in the descriptions of little details as this one did. The writing is beautiful, the speech pattern is strange, in some way, but does not feel out of place in this setting; I actually really loved the formal, slightly archaic quality of the speech in this book. The descriptions are beautifully described, in the way that Eloise McGraw does so well in all her children's books.Highly recommended for anyone, of any age.
I first read this book when I was a teen. For the longest time, all I could remember about it was that the main character got whipped within an inch of her life near the end and that her shoulders were still healing when the romantic storyline was wrapped up. I also remembered not quite liking Sheftu, but I couldn't remember why. A comment on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books reminded me of the book's title and author. My first thought was, "Must request this via ILL!" So I did.Even though it's dangerous, I like taking the occasional trip down reading memory lane - sometimes I still enjoy the books I loved when I was younger, and sometimes I can barely finish them. For the most part, I enjoyed this one. Although I think I disliked Sheftu a bit more than I would have when I was younger, all the intrigue was a lot of fun, despite some bits that strained my suspension of disbelief, and I still thought Mara was an awesome heroine.While I was reading the book, I found myself thinking that the dialogue read like something out of an old high fantasy novel - only instead of "By the Great Grimor," or whatever, you get "By Set," "By Amon," and "By the Blessed Son." I checked the copyright date and, sure enough, the book was originally published in 1953. Thank goodness I didn't know that when I was younger, or I would have avoided this book simply because it's older than my parents.Prior to rereading this, I wouldn't have been able to tell you why I enjoyed it when I was younger - I couldn't remember enough about it. I can now say with relative certainty that my younger self enjoyed this book 1) because Mara is awesome, 2) because all the intrigue is exciting, and 3) because there is romance. Now that I'm older, #1 and #2 still stand strong, but I'm a bit more iffy about #3.Mara is a slave, only 17 years old, but she never cowers fearfully from anybody - she's more likely to snarl her defiance, or glare daggers. She knows that no one in the world is going to come to save her, so she has to save herself. She doesn't go looking to become a double agent but ends up becoming one because she has to, and also because it keeps her options open. Sheftu can talk all he wants about his work being for the good of Egypt - Mara, as she is throughout most of the book, is only looking out for herself. However, she's so clever and charming that you can't help but like her.Mara might have been fun to read about all on her own, but all the intrigue gave her a chance to shine. Every time things got more dangerous and complicated for her, she used her wits and charm to talk her way out of things. And yet, she wasn't supremely confident - she knew that, if she messed up, she could die. As just a slave, she lied and stole things (there's a fun scene in which she steals honey cakes, eating them right in front of the guy she's stealing them from without him ever realizing what's going on), but it wasn't until she became a spy that she started dealing with people who were more of a match for her.One of those people is Sheftu. On the one hand, he's lived with dangerous court politics all his life, so he lives and breathes lies and treachery. On the other hand, his entire rebel operation seems to be built on a house of cards. Despite knowing that spies are all around, he takes Mara at face value and just assumes that she's a runaway slave - that seemed rather stupid to me. (view spoiler)[Then there's at least one person in his group that couldn't look more untrustworthy if he tried, and yet Sheftu trusts him enough that it's almost his downfall. (hide spoiler)]
What do You think about Mara, Daughter Of The Nile (1985)?
This book is amazing! I loved the main character, Mara. She is spunky and impulsive, and I never got tired of reading about her. Her character was really well developed. Actually, I thought that about most of the characters. Well, Mara, Inanni, and Nekonkh. Sheftu's personality was a little more obscure, but that in itself is part of his personality. I never really understood why he was so opposed to Hatshepsut, but this didn't affect my overall opinion of the book. I thought the book was very well written. The plot developed well; it didn't drag along, but it didn't move too quickly to enjoy the story. I really enjoyed how McGraw used vivid images in her book. She used just the right amount of detail. I hate books that have a ton of unimportant details. I tend to lose the story, and my interest in it. It's almost as bad to not have enough detail, too. The characters can be kind of flat and undeveloped. McGraw had just the right balance. I had a really good idea of what everyone/everything looked like. I loved this book, and strongly recommend it.
—Elizabeth Johnson
I must have read this first in middle school - probably found it by snooping around the historical fiction section of my library. Goodness, I love this book - and this author. If you are a fan of historical fiction, or simply of good stories, you really should look into her other works.As you can probably guess by the title, this work is set in ancient Egypt. I won't write a synopsis, but I will list a few of the things this book features in case you're considering giving it a try.- Your typical hot tempered heroine It seems everyone loves this sort of characterization - perhaps you will as well! She's not overboard in this respect, thank heavens, so it won't wear on you throughout the novel.- An exciting plot Thrilling? Maybe that's taking it a little too far, but it is certainly engaging.- No bodice-ripping They didn't have bodices in ancient Egypt, apparently. Ha, but really - this book is blessedly free of many of the curses of the historical fiction genre. There is romance, but it isn't constant or sordid.- Solid writing- Relatively accurate historical details I'm no expert on ancient Egyptian history and culture, but at least I wasn't jolted out of the setting by any blatant missteps. The elements used by McGraw were skillfully integrated into the story and furthered the richness of the work.
—Danielle
I'll not write a long review since others have already said everything there is to be said, but I will say that I can't believe how beautiful this was. I wish I could read it all over again. Five Stars easy, it was a million times better than my last book.Mara was a delight, she was a sweet little trickster who didn't know which people to side with. Whichever side she chose to spy for, there was danger and intrigue. From robing the dead in their crypts' to appearing before Pharaoh, Mara gets entangled in it all. She plays both sides, but what will she do when both realize her duplicity? This book was so much better than I'd thought it would be, I was afraid it would have a modern feel to it, but instead, I felt that I was right next to Mara, doing my utmost to outwit them all. I think this book is timeless.Did I say it was beautiful? It is beautiful. G rating There is, of course, the Egyptian Gods and Burials pomp also there is a whipping at the end, which is not described in a sickening way. Still, it was never shoved in your face.
—Tweety
