Shakespeare tells us:

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.”

But Mesu Andrews’ latest heroine could tell you something different. A name is crucial and important, and in some ways it can set the course of a life. As a child and a decoy, she is named Meryetaten-tasherit in order to deceive the Egyptian gods, so that if they come to take the soul of the Great Wife Queen Nefertiti’s daughter, they’ll take this child instead…and the other princess will be safe.

However, it’s not the princess’s death that changes everything for this girl child. Rather, Pharaoh Akhenaten’s beloved wife Kiya, the girl’s mother, dies in childbirth. Little Mery is given by the king to his favorite General Horemheb and the general’s wife Amenia to raise, as they are childless. So Mery is renamed by the general: Anippe, meaning “daughter of the Nile.” This new family will continue to live at the royal palace at Memphis, and Anippe will resume her lessons with her brother Tut, the prince regent. 

When Tut is only 10, King Akhenaten dies and Tut must assume the throne and enter an arranged marriage. Anippe, daughter of the Nile, must relocate with her adoptive mother Amenia to the royal harem, while her father the general and the king’s crafty Vizier Ay stay with Tut. 

"Mesu Andrews is gifted at taking actual persons and events and weaving gripping and readable historical fiction about them, telling us what might have happened.... You won’t be able to put down THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER until you reach the very last page. "

More change is coming. When Anippe is 14, she is given in marriage to one of the general’s top officers, Commander Sebak of the Ramessids, in a match sanctioned by Pharaoh Tut. Anippe, astute already in the political moves and countermoves made by heads of nations, inquires of her mother who will benefit from this marriage. Amenia informs her of Vizier Ay’s attempts to gain more power by the marriage of his own son; Anippe’s marriage will strengthen not only Pharaoh Tut but also his favorite general, Tut’s devoted supporter. And so Anippe gains a new name: Amira Anippe. She also has to move again --- to Sebak’s estate Avaris in the Nile Delta.

To her surprise, Amira likes her husband. She even comes to love him. But she has a secret. She is absolutely terrified of childbirth. She watched her mother Kiya die in childbirth, along with Kiya’s newborn son. Her brother Tut’s wife suffered a miscarriage while visiting Sebak’s estate. And she has vowed that she will never become pregnant, taking the chance of dying in childbirth. 

The Avaris estate’s work is largely done by Hebrew slaves, descendants of Jacob who grew so numerous that the Egyptians enslaved them to keep them from growing too powerful. Avaris has a fine linen workshop, run by a Hebrew slave and trusted employee of Sebak’s, Mered. And Amira discovers that the Hebrew camp has its own midwives. Although Sebak is anxious for children, Amira quietly visits a Hebrew midwife and demands herbs that she can use --- unbeknownst to her husband --- to prevent pregnancy. And the herbs work.

All too soon, Sebak must return to war. After his wife the queen’s miscarriage, Pharaoh Tut had decreed that all Hebrew male infants were to be thrown into the Nile. But Amira encounters an unexpected surprise one morning as she’s bathing on a Nile inlet near their villa: a tiny pitch-covered basket containing a baby --- a Hebrew boy named Moses.

Amira believes that this baby, whom she nicknames Mehy, will solve her deathly fear of childbirth while providing an heir for Sebak. Can this deception turn out well for Amira, or will the moves and countermoves of the kingdom of Egypt expose her and the baby to more danger? Dramatic changes, both in life and name, await not only Amira and baby Mehy, but also Amira’s entire royal family. And Amira learns, in all these changes, that a person’s name really does matter.

Mesu Andrews is gifted at taking actual persons and events and weaving gripping and readable historical fiction about them, telling us what might have happened. What would life have been like for the princess who drew Moses out of the water? What would this adopted boy’s life in royal Egypt have been like? And how would the enslaved Hebrews experience bondage? You won’t be able to put down THE PHARAOH’S DAUGHTER until you reach the very last page.