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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Hypatia by Lukman Clark begins in fourth-century Egypt, where a girl named Tuya lives beside the Nile with her Kushite mother and Macedonian soldier father. After her father disappears, a catastrophic sea surge tears Tuya away from home, family, and the name she was born with. Taken into a Christian desert community, she becomes Hypatia, and also Catherine, though her old life continues to press against the new one. Her bond with Emelia, a young woman sent away from Carthage, leads her toward Theon’s estate near Lake Mareotis, where learning, hidden ritual, and Alexandria’s endangered libraries begin changing her future. As Bishop Theophilus rises in power, Hypatia’s gifts draw her into a secret world that guards knowledge against men who use faith as a weapon.
Lukman Clark’s Hypatia is brilliant historical fiction, and the author proves how powerful a period setting can be when it grows from daily survival as much as public history. The Nile detail is excellent: Tuya trapping birds in a reed boat, and reading about the river through hawks, markets, and seasonal movement gives the early world a living pulse. The best part is Hypatia herself. I love seeing a female protagonist whose mind becomes her defense long before Alexandria knows her name. Theon is also beautifully drawn as a scholar who treats Hypatia as a collaborator before effectively making her a part of his own family. The author also gives Theophilus a frightening path from caravan assistant to bishop. Well written in a journal style, in the first-person, readers who enjoy historical fiction about intelligent women and alternative history will adore this book.
