The falcon, a large, powerful bird of prey, can reach diving speeds of up to 90 miles per hour when preying on smaller creatures. A prominent motif of ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphics, this majestic, far-seeing bird is identified with Horus, a sun god commonly represented with a falcon’s head. As such, the falcon is closely associated with Egypt’s pharaohs, who were seen as Horus’s manifestations on earth. In Mara, Daughter of the Nile, the titular heroine sees a falcon swoop out of the sky and kill a desert lark. In the next moment, still breathless from the “beauty and cruelty of its attack” (77), Mara receives a summons from Hatshepsut, Egypt’s ruthless queen, who calls herself Pharaoh. As Hatshepsut’s later treatment of Mara suggests, this juxtaposition is no coincidence, for the rapacious cruelty of the falcon represents the gloating brutality of Hatshepsut and foreshadows the queen’s acts of sadism, such as her vicious attempt to have the helpless Mara whipped to death.

Among the novel’s characters, none is so deft with his hands as the juggler Sahure, who can flip a “cataract” of balls into circles, triangles, and patterns of “brilliant intricacy.