CASTING THE GODS ADRIFT

Much-honored storyteller McCaughrean views the court of Pharaoh Akhenaten through the eyes of an awed young artist. Rescued from the Nile’s waters and crocodiles after a shipwreck by Pharaoh’s own barge, Tutmose and his brother Ibrim find themselves in the presence of a living god, who kindly offers them dream jobs as, respectively, an apprentice artist and a musician in his bustling new capital city. Tutmose’s joy is tempered, though, by fears of his devoutly traditionalist father, Harkhuf, who sees Akhenaten’s monotheism as a ticket to eternal misery after death, or even no afterlife at all. Complemented by Ludlow’s realistically modeled figures, McCaughrean fills her tale with period detail, and winds it up to a tense climax in which Harkhuf’s attempt to assassinate Pharaoh with a ceramic cat filled with asps nearly causes Ibrim’s death instead. The author’s thoughtful consideration of belief systems in conflict adds depth to Tutmose’s lively account of life in Pharaoh’s entourage, and the development of his own religious convictions. (glossary, bibliography) (Fiction. 10-12)