Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As.
Country: Andorra
Title: The Teacher of Cheops
Author: Albert Salvadó
Language: Catalan
Translator: Marc Brian Duckett
Publisher: Indie Published (2012)
The tiny country of Andorra has thus far proved the most difficult to find a selection of fictional works translated into English. Nearly every other reader also seeking to read a book from every country has settled on The Teacher of Cheops because it’s all that is available – and it’s not even set in Andorra.
Salvadó was a very prolific Andorran author who wrote across many genres, but his favorite was historical fiction. The Teacher of Cheops was originally published in Catalan in the mid to late 1990s and translated to English in 2012 and self-published. I believe it is his only work to date that has been translated into English. It is set in Egypt during the Fourth Dynasty and details the construction of the pyramids while focusing on Sedum, a man born a slave who eventually becomes the teacher of the man who will become the second pharaoh of the Fourth Dynasty.
The novel is chock full of political drama and the consequences of crossing of the Pharaoh are pretty brutal – the nipples of women are literally chopped off such that they cannot nurse their children. People seem to be losing body parts on the regular and some are burned alive. And folks love their poison. “Tell Cersi. I want her to know it was me,” indeed.
I did not care for the depiction of women, especially of young women, in this novel. The novel opens with the rape of a 13-year-old slave, but it is presented as a welcomed event – almost a pity fuck – because she is “so disfigured” no one would ever want to have sex with her. Another young woman is forced to marry the Pharaoh and, unable to sexually perform, he rapes her with his fingers until she bleeds. Another young woman, I believe she is 15, is presented as a voluptuous temptress who seduces the Pharaoh. Another young slave is presented as nothing more than a sexual being for anyone and everyone to take part in – and she lives for the services she provides and is well known for what she can do with her tongue. I get that young women in nearly all cultures were expected to carry children as soon as they started their menstrual cycles; however, it’s not so much their age as how they’re described – which was a choice. Perhaps things were last in translation – especially with the sex scenes.
Either way, it’s worth a read – I guess. If you know of a book written by someone from Andorra and set in Andorra, please let me know.
A Girl Named Tommi 