SOURCE: A review of Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth, in Los Angeles Times, April 2, 2000, p. L1.

In the following review, Levi discusses the parallels between history and heroics in Mahfouz's Akhenaten: Dweller in Truth.

In 1985, the Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz published a book titled The Day the Leader Was Murdered. Mahfouz was widely known as a supporter of “The Leader,” Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who had been assassinated four years earlier for making peace with Israel in the form of the historic Camp David treaty. Sadat, who began his term of office with a brilliant surprise attack on Israel over the Yom Kippur holy days in 1973, made a stunning volte face in 1977 with the first state visit of any Arab leader to Israel and shared the Nobel Peace Prize that year with Israeli President Menachem Begin. A hero to some, a traitor to others, an idealist and a politician...