Thursday, September 04, 2025
That Other Egypt
This book took a long time to come together. I never intended to write a linked series of fictions themed on Egypt. It just happened. The earliest story in this collection dates from 1994, the second earliest from 2016: a considerable gap. The others followed in piecemeal fashion. The project was completed last year. Ten stories in total, though one is actually a play.
There is more than one Egypt.
There is the Egypt of reality and dreams, a realm of impossible nostalgia, a sandblown land cut by the mightiest of rivers, ancient and enigmatic, the days swirling with the dust of millennia, the nights thick with the accumulated echoes of countless generations, alluring, exotic, often arcane, a focus of desire for generations of archaeologists.
But parallel Egypts exist too, more sinister and even more mysterious, where pyramids are inverted and every object that can be mummified will be. Some of these alternative Egypts might be found inside our heads, others will transform those heads into geometrical travesties of themselves.
Egypt is a multiplicity, an infinite layering of secrets.
The strong cohesion of the finished book came as a surprise to me. It's another excellently designed volume from Eibonvale Press and I am as delighted as always with the creations of this publisher. Their books have a unique look and the hardbacks are beautifully produced.
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