Bata: The Man Who Could Not Die

They killed Bata. That was their first mistake. Bata's life is destroyed by an accusation he cannot disprove. Driven from his home and separated from the brother who once loved him, he crosses into a strange new existence—one in which his life no longer resides entirely within his own body. His heart lies hidden in the flower of a fir tree. And so begins a struggle that death itself cannot end. Betrayal follows Bata from the Valley of Fir to the court of Pharaoh. His enemies discover the secret of his life and destroy him. His brother searches for what remains. Bata returns—first as himself, then in forms his enemies cannot anticipate—and each return draws him closer to the woman whose choices transformed both their lives. But survival is no longer enough. To expose the truth, Bata must enter the very household of Pharaoh, where memory, identity, kingship and vengeance become inseparable—and where the man who could not die must decide what his many lives have made him. Bata: The Man Who Could Not Die is a historical supernatural novel inspired by The Tale of the Two Brothers, one of the great surviving works of ancient Egyptian literature. Written more than three thousand years ago and preserved on Papyrus D'Orbiney (British Museum EA 10183), the ancient story follows betrayal, exile, death, transformation and return. This novel reimagines that extraordinary tale as a psychologically grounded story of two brothers and the consequences of a single accusation.