Thu is a girl from the wrong side of Egypt’s social order who gets pulled into the highest circles of power. In Pauline Gedge’s Lady of the Reeds series, she grows up as a half-Libyan peasant in the village of Aswat, far from the courts and temples of the pharaoh. But Thu is smart and restless, and when the opportunity comes to be educated and trained for a life beyond the village, she takes it.
That path leads her to the royal court, where she becomes one of Ramesses III’s concubines. Life in the palace brings luxury and status, but also danger. When Thu falls from the pharaoh’s favor, she finds herself caught up in a conspiracy to poison Ramesses III. The plot is drawn from real historical events surrounding the Harem Conspiracy of the Twentieth Dynasty, and Gedge weaves Thu’s fictional story tightly into the documented record.
The series spans two books, House of Dreams (1994) and House of Illusions (1996), following Thu from her humble origins through the treacherous world of ancient Egyptian palace politics.
Reading Order
See the complete Lady of the Reeds reading order for all books in the series.