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The Egyptologist

Audiobook
0 of 1 copy available
0 of 1 copy available
From the bestselling author of Prague comes a witty, inventive, brilliantly constructed novel about an Egyptologist obsessed with finding the tomb of an apocryphal king. This darkly comic labyrinth of a story opens on the desert plains of Egypt in 1922, then winds its way from the slums of Australia to the ballrooms of Boston by way of Oxford, the battlefields of the First World War, and a royal court in turmoil. Just as Howard Carter unveils the tomb of Tutankhamun, making the most dazzling find in the history of archaeology, Oxford-educated Egyptologist Ralph Trilipush is digging himself into trouble, having staked his professional reputation and his fiancEe's fortune on a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Meanwhile, a relentless Australian detective sets off on the case of his career, spanning the globe in search of a murderer. And another murderer. And possibly another murderer. The confluence of these seemingly separate stories results in an explosive ending, at once inevitable and utterly unpredictable. Arthur Phillips leads this expedition to its unforgettable climax with all the wit and narrative bravado that made Prague one of the most critically acclaimed novels of 2002. Exploring issues of class, greed, ambition, and the very human hunger for eternal life, this staggering second novel gives us a glimpse of Phillips's range and maturity-and is sure to earn him further acclaim as one of the most exciting authors of his generation.
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    • AudioFile Magazine
      THE EGYPTOLOGIST is a novel told in diaries and letters written by unreliable characters. Ralph Trilipush is an English academic on the hunt for King Atum-hadu's tomb, based on clues gleaned from a scrap of hieroglyphic pornography. Ferrell is an Australian detective searching the globe to locate an heir and solve a murder or two. The multicast performance is excellent. Simon Prebble adeptly voices the deluded Trilipush as he expresses himself in his diary and through letters to his fiancée, Margaret. Margaret's letters to Trilipush are read with a slight quaver, suggesting her fragility, neediness, and opium addiction. The detective is so cocksure of himself that you know he has to be wrong about almost everything. Phillips's narrators may be notoriously unreliable, but these readers are uniformly excellent. A.B. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      July 5, 2004
      How was Phillips to follow up a debut as startlingly brilliant as Prague
      ? By doing something completely different. His story, set mostly in Egypt in the early 1920s, stars Ralph Trilipush, an obsessive Egyptologist. Trilipush is more than a little odd. He is pinning his hopes on purported king Atum-hadu, whose erotic verses he has discovered and translated; now he must locate his tomb and its expected riches. Meanwhile, an Australian detective, for reasons too complicated to go into, is seeking to unmask Trilipush, who may have had some relationship with a young Australian Egyptologist who died mysteriously. Trilipush and the detective are two quite unreliable narrators, and the effect is that of a hall of mirrors. Where does fact end and imagination, illusion and wishful thinking begin? Phillips is a master manipulator, able to assume a dozen convincingly different voices at will, and his book is vastly entertaining. It's apparent that something dire is afoot, but the reader, while apprehensive, can never quite figure out what. The ending, which cannot be revealed, is shocking and cleverly contrived. Agent,
      Marly Rusoff. (Aug. 31)

      Forecast:
      It remains to be seen whether the admirers Phillips won for
      Prague will come out for something so very different, but Random is giving this title a big launch and it can be strongly handsold to readers in search of refreshingly original characters and situations.

    • Publisher's Weekly

      November 1, 2004
      This recording of Phillips's maddeningly suspenseful novel of death, betrayal and morbid self-absorption features outstanding performances by all of the narrators involved. Told through letters, journal entries and telegrams, the book features arrogant British explorer Ralph M. Trilipush; his gadabout American fiancée, Margaret Finneran; and a sardonic Australian detective named Harold Ferrell, who becomes entwined with them both. While the book is told alternately from their three points of view, Trilipush commands the majority of the story, and Prebble's portrayal of him is spot on. The only problem is that he does such a fine job of capturing Trilipush's smug, overbearing attitude that it's difficult to listen to him for long stretches. The episodes told from Ferrell's perspective become welcome respites, and Negroponte's Australian accent is as sharp as the character's purported powers of observation. But Ferrell proves to be only slightly less conceited than Trilipush, and certainly no more reliable. Though the book's many clues are revealed as slowly as artifacts buried beneath the Egyptian sands, this excellent production will pleasantly tease listeners until all is unveiled—even if the main guide is one of the more unlikable characters in recent fiction. Simultaneous release with the Random hardcover (Forecasts, July 5).

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  • English

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