luisa miccoli

FIGLI DEL NILO
Wilbur Smith
Longanesi & C.
The Pharaoh Tamoses, the great god-king of Egypt, dies in mysterious circumstances during a campaign against the Hyksos who had occupied Lower Egypt for seventy years. At least, this is the official explanation for his death, but in fact he was assassinated by his great friend Naja, who wanted his throne. Taita, the eunuch priest of Horus, protagonist of River God, understood his real intentions and, warned by the spirit of the beloved Lostris, mother of the assassinated pharaoh, sets off on foot to save Nefer, the adolescent son of Tamoses; unable to escape, they are forced to stay for a long time in Thebes, but there Nefer finds love in the form of the young Hyksos princess, Mintaka, who is as concerned about the destiny of Egypt as he is. As foreseen by Taita, events precipitate: Apepi, king of the invaders and father of Mintaka, is killed by Trok, cousin of Naja, who marries the young princess, so that there is nothing for the old wizard to do but to organize an ambitious escape plan. Between the lack of water in the high desert, the plans of Ishtar, a wizard in the service of the evil god Marduk, and the khamsin - the terrible sandstorms - the young Nefer has to face enemies of every sort to become a real man and oppose the powers of the two false pharaohs. The ruined city of Galalla, formerly the site of fierce battles in River God, here becomes the base of the young Pharaoh, and the place where he has to pass the trials of the mysterious “Red way,” where one needs to go to become a man and a warrior, an adept of Mitra, the great Red God of war. As a background to all this, the Great River, the Nile, which watches the events unfolding on its banks, because those men are above all its children, children of the Nile. This book, the latest of Wilbur Smith’s Egyptian romances, is masterfully guided along the threads that make a story great: betrayal and friendship, love and hate, because he who is your best friend can always hate and betray you. And, like the khamsin, this book doesn’t let up until the end, on the last page, where, perhaps, something is revealed, but much will remain buried by the desert sands that keep their secrets forever.

There are writers who win over readers with an ease that must cause envy in anyone who counts his book sales on his fingers. In fact, Wilbur Smith, who has had a lot of success like this, says that he is satisfied with himself and with his work. Popular in Europe and in Great Britain, his novels are carving out a respectable niche in the American market as well. He is particularly popular among Italians, who account for a good 10% of his sales; that means of the 80 million books sold, 8 million or more were bought in this country. A character to the last, one gets the impression reading his biography and listening to his interviews that even in real life Wilbur Smith is an authentic protagonist of his time. Born in Africa of English parents, he adopted the Dark Continent as his literary homeland and says of himself, “I am a white African.” Well-versed in the history of South Africa and of the surrounding region (Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe), he knows Afrikaans, Zulu and other African dialects in addition to English. He has passionately loved the women who have been at his side, as wives, suffering for the 1999 death of his beloved Danielle Thomas, who was also a talented writer. He had two children by his first wife, Anne: one boy, Saune, and a girl, Christian, and Dieter, the son from the first Danielle’s marriage. His desire to “travel through life,” and the sense of gratitude he experiences towards a destiny that is, all things considered, benevolent, fills him with sympathy and humanity that are far from the prototype of the suave, cultured intellectual. He has many interests: he loves to ski, go quail hunting, scuba diving, and fishing in Oregon. His first book was When the Lion Feeds, which began the popular series known as the Courteney Cycle. Since then, he has been writing about what he knows and loves, and this is the narrative lifeblood at the basis of the public’s approval. Ever since his first successful novel, in which he described mountains, ocean waters, wildlife, and the problems of apartheid as backdrop to the adventures of his characters, he has managed to create a world that is now familiar to his readers, who go inevitably from one tale to the next. Critics note that it is mostly women who buy his work, attracted more by the virile and adventurous aspects of his male heroes and the interwoven love stories than by the plot or historic context. In fact, his descriptions are always highly detailed, fittingly fleshed out both when he talks of myths and customs of ancient Egypt, and when he speaks of the equipment and technology of a high-tech airplane. The secret seems to lie in the enthusiasm and discipline he applies when he works. He writes only about what he knows well, and he conducts painstaking research in every corner of the world and prepares the materials on which he will play masterfully to enchant his readers. He crafts stories the way a seamstress designs and sews her high-fashion dresses, one eye on verve and the other on the customer, who must never be disappointed. His magic lies in that humanity so close to us in its passions, vices, ambitions, struggles and loves, and so distant in time, in place, in customs and culture. The eternal struggle between good and evil, which is the leading character in children’s tales, is the crux around which the pages turn without stopping and at a truly surprising rhythm.