Although Cleopatra is by no means British author Saara El-Arifi’s debut novel (she has written several fantasy fiction books prior to this), it will probably garner more attention than her previous endeavours due to its subject — the glamorous and fascinating historical Egyptian monarch, Cleopatra Philopater.

The action of the book is set largely in the third and fourth centuries BCE and dwells on some of the queen’s most important relationships, including her affairs with the Romans Julius Caesar and Mark Antony (Marcus Antonius). For simplicity’s sake, I have used the term ‘queen’ for the main protagonist throughout this review; however, Cleopatra was generally referred to as a pharaoh at that time.

Cleopatra was named heir to the Egyptian throne by her father Ptolemy XIII, but her siblings — her brother Theos Ptolemy and her sister Arsinoe — started plotting to take the throne from her early in her reign. The teenage queen loved her siblings, despite their faithlessness, and was deeply hurt by their betrayal.

However, her love for her country was greater. Getting her loyal servant Charmion to impersonate her as a decoy, she dressed in the simple robes of a peasant and sneaked into the presence of Julius Caesar, who was on a diplomatic mission to Alexandria at the time. So impressed was Caesar by the queen’s intelligence and her faith in her own abilities that he assisted her in retrieving her lands from the grasp of the rather ineffectual Theos and the greedy Arsinoe.

A fresh retelling of the legendary Egyptian pharaoh’s life recasts her as a healer, strategist and fiercely devoted mother rather than the seductress history often remembers

The queen bore Caesar a son — nicknamed Caesarion — and had it not been for Caesar’s untimely death at the hands of the Roman Senate a few years later, Caesarion might have ended up ruling both the Roman Empire and Egypt.

El-Arifi’s greatest strength is her ability to bring her characters to life. I was very pleased to see a detailed portrayal of Caesarion, on whom history, unfortunately, does not dwell much. The boy did not lack bravery and kept his cool during an assassination attempt, much like his mother did once. He is portrayed by El-Arifi as displaying a combination of Caesar’s wisdom and his mother’s nobility of spirit. Cleopatra wanted to consolidate her son’s inheritance and position, which led to her seduction of Marcus Antonius following Caesar’s death.

Was I happy to see her bound and beaten? I should have been, I should have rejoiced that her treachery would finally cease. But as I have told you before, I truly loved Arsinoe, far more than any of my other siblings. We had fought so frequently as children that, in some ways, I thought that this conflict would be resolved just as simply: with a song to lift our spirits and an embrace to forgive. But it could not be so. There was no going back to the people we had been.

      — Excerpt from the book

However, El-Arifi presents the queen’s moves as being far gentler and more tasteful than history would have us believe. In the novel (from her teenage years), Cleopatra had a habit of donning simple robes and visiting the sick of Alexandria in order to heal them. She believed she was endowed with the power of healing by the goddess Isis, although El-Arifi implies that the queen’s skills were largely due to her intelligence and learning.

While visiting Caesar in Rome, she was standing before a statue of Venus in relatively simple clothing when Antonius first encountered her. She teasingly referred to him as a Dionysus-figure, and makes a note to the reader (the book is written in first-person narrative) that her attraction to Antonius was based on the fact that he beheld the woman prior to beholding the queen.

Although Antonius was already married, the affair progressed rapidly into love, and Cleopatra eventually bore him twins (Helios and Selene) and a son (Ptolemy). Antonius joined forces with Octavian (Caesar’s nephew) and defeated Caesar’s assassins, but Cleopatra resented how her eldest son had been sidelined by the Romans in favour of Octavian.

Throughout the novel, the queen is presented as a fiercely loving and protective mother, so it comes as no surprise when she incites Antonius into fighting against Octavian so that Caesarion can claim his birthright. The plan ends rather disastrously, but the queen’s handmaiden Charmion helps smuggle all four of the queen’s children to safety.

Although inferior to Cleopatra in status, Charmion is deeply beloved by the Egyptian monarch and responds with almost fanatical loyalty. Indeed, when Cleopatra is attacked early in the novel (by a ‘hakawati’— storyteller), it is her handmaiden who leaps forward to take the assassin’s blow on her face. Although, according to history, the queen committed suicide as did Antonius, in this version, it is Charmion who impersonates Cleopatra and kills herself with asp-venom as the monarch smuggles her children to safety.

This twist in the tale, however, pales in comparison to the one that follows, in which Isis informs the soul of Cleopatra that she will be repeatedly reincarnated at the goddess’ pleasure. Far-fetched though this may seem, it is the only heavy-handed touch of the fantastical in the book. The rest of the novel has both feet planted firmly in reality.

El-Arifi evokes the atmosphere of Ancient Egypt with admirable skill. Regardless of whether she is describing palaces, clothing, animals (such as lion-cubs, ibises, and asps), infections and illnesses or temples, she maintains a consistent eye for detail throughout. It is clear that El-Arifi has researched the period well, although some might quibble that this is less a piece of historical fiction and more of an extended, internalised monologue narrated by Cleopatra.

However, given that the queen has been immortalised already by scholars such as Cicero and playwrights such as William Shakespeare, El-Arifi’s take on the Egyptian monarch’s story is both refreshing and makes for easy reading. The prose is simple and unconvoluted, and Cleopatra’s voice engages with the reader so intimately that one begins to regard the character as being as much a friend of the reader as Charmion was.

In spite of the fact that history has at times portrayed Cleopatra in a negative light, doing so in the novel is emphatically not part of El-Arifi’s agenda. She presents her protagonist as a caring sister, a loving mother, a skilled and considerate healer, and a strong-willed but intelligent romantic partner. Although this is not a hard and fast rule, characters with whom their authors sympathise are generally better constructed than those whom their respective creators dislike.

Based on my reading of the novel, it is evident that El-Arifi loves not simply the idea of writing about Cleopatra but also the actual figure she brings to life on the page. It is this novelistic exercise that is a true reincarnation of this mysterious Egyptian monarch, who was both very human and, at times, sublime.

The reviewer is Associate Professor of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts at the Institute of Business Administration. She has authored two collections of short stories, Timeless College Tales and Perennial College Tales and a play, The Political Chess King

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, June 28th, 2026