from cairnwood.net's Reading Room

As posted in "the Reading Room"

The Third Translation by Matt Bondurant (Hyperion)

Review: What can I say about this book? It has immediately leaped into my top 5 favorite novels list. Why? The prose is pure magic, the story compelling, the drama intense...and Rothchild's character development? Beautiful. I cannot express in words the utter joy I felt reading this book. Bondurant unveils an Egypt through the eyes of a scholar and poet without it ever seeming unobtainable. The secondary characters, from the divine Penelope to the seemingly daft Alan Henry, are alive and painted with a fine brush. This is the real world, with real dangers, and just when you feared that a supernatural element was on the verge of being revealed, Bondurant reels you back into reality. The supernatural is present, but it is the supernatural quality of the poetic, from love to disgust and back again.