Book 1, The Reed Boat Summary

Sinuhe begins writing his memoirs in the third year of an exile ordered by his one-time friend, Pharaoh Horemheb. Sinuhe is the son of Senmut, a physician to the poor in Thebes, and his wife Kipa, a storyteller, who names him after a legendary adventurer when she finds him in a reed boat shortly after his birth. Although they live in a squalid, noisy quarter, childhood is golden. While still a child, Sinuhe begins learning medicine and at seven attends his first sacrifice and must decide on a career. Senmut takes him to Inteb, once a renowned warrior, to dampen his interest in the military.

Unable to afford temple schools, Senmut entrusts Sinuhe to a gentle priest, Oneh. Sinuhe notices that physically he looks more like the nobles than his working-class classmates, and an artistic friend, Thothmes...