Daughter of Egypt: A Novel

The strength of Marie Benedict's writing is her ability to create fascinating and lovable characters out of women from history whose impact was large but history has overlooked. I am grateful for the way she gives these women a voice and a story, even if fictionalized rather than a biography, stories that I otherwise wouldn't have heard. I loved following Eve as a character, she was so determined and passionate about her fathers digs in the Valley of the Kings and it was great to follow a woman archeologist at a pivotal moment in the history of archeology. I really enjoyed the way the author combined her musings on the powerful woman Pharaoh Hatshepsut with Eve's imagined push to be part of her father's archeology team. I love the depth the author gave Eve as a character, even if the arc of the character's growth is unlikely given the time period. I appreciated this decision to eschew historical accuracy to point out the broader issues at play during this era of archeology, I think the inclusion of this modern view point of the British excavations in the Valley of the Kings was a more responsible approach than romanticizing it. I struggled a little bit with the character of Hatshepsut, the character and story were less developed and I found it difficult to connect. I get why the author included it, as explained in the author's note at the end, her fascination with Hatshepsut's story and wanting to find a way to tell it. I wish the author had explored the setting of Egypt a little bit more, I was really wanting the setting to be vivid. Although the way she made the British neighborhoods and hotels feel more like England than Egypt is probably historically accurate, and my feelings toward this probably did mirror Eve's.

I enjoyed the story