The ancient Egyptian empire, which stretched from modern day Syria across northern Africa, has reached its apex under the House of Thebes, the ruling family of the 18th dynasty.

Now co-regent, Amenhotep IV is very dedicated to the Aten, and gives the deity a new symbol, a sun disk with twelve rays that end in hands.

Amenhotep takes the name Akhenaten, and announces that he is building a new capital, Akhetaten (modern day tel-el-Amarna), dedicated solely to the Aten.

Desperate for a male heir, Akhenaten makes one of his own daughters pregnant, but the baby dies in childbirth and the young princess is unable to have more children.

The old Pharaoh Amenhotep III finally dies, and people can be heard to hiss at Akhenaten during the funeral procession to the Valley of the Kings.

Furious at the hissing of the crowd, he orders his troops to batter down the doors to the temple, and has the statue of Amon brought out of its dark cell and thrown into the Nile, to the horror of everyone.

The story is told from the alternating perspectives of its many characters, including Akhenaten, his brother and lover Smenkhkara, Nefertiti, Tutankhamon, Aye and Horemheb.

Kirkus Reviews called Return to Thebes "accessible Egyptology" while noting that "all those first-person spiels do manage to keep the history dusted, but, with fragmented viewpoints, only Akhenaten can grab any sympathy.

"[5] James R. Frakes of The New York Times called Return to Thebes "an anesthesiologist's dream—monologue after monologue all yakking about the same things ... Drury's aim is honorable, but to evoke in prose the savage stillness of Egyptian friezes would require the pressurized genius of Beckett or an equally rabid poet of space and spirit.