"Naguib Mahfouz brings us the story of Akhenaten, or the "sun king," whose monotheistic beliefs eventually earned him a reputation as the most infamous ruler of ancient Egypt and the epithet "heretic pharaoh."".

"Narrating the novel is a young man with a passion for the truth, who sets out to question Akhenaten's contemporaries, including his closest friends, his worst enemies, and finally, his wife, Nefertiti, years after the king's death in an effort to record a history free of bias.

As our narrator and each of the subjects he interviews contribute their version of the story, Akhenaten emerges as a charismatic enigma whose character encompasses all of the contradictions his subjects see in him, and readers are allowed to decide for themselves the truth about Akhenaten."--BOOK JACKET.