Eunuch

by Leonard Lustgarten

Mohammed Nasser, a young Eritrean farm boy, is swept up by kidnappers, castrated, and sold as a slave boy to an Arabian oil prince. He is trained in the palace, and rises to "manager" of the prince's harem, a group of beautiful, amorous young women. Nicole, the Prince's favorite concubine, seeking her own freedom, conspires to masculinize the Eunuch, Mohammed, through a series of injections. In a daring maneuver, the fugitive twosome escapes the palace and head to France. The sterile, but sexually potent, Mohammed connives to be cloned, producing a tiny replica of himself. Nicole, furious at the illicit cloning, demands a separation, leaving him to raise his son/clone as single parent. Returning to Eritrea, Mohammed discovers that his family has been wiped out through local warfare, leaving only his brother Abdullah who has risen to military power and influence. Through Abdullah, Mohammed is thrust into the world of geo-politics, power and international finance. He is faced with the double burdens of active diplomacy and raising the world's first known human clone.

252 pages, Paperback

First published September 12, 2008

Reviews

[Tucker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel is unusual for its exploration of a eunuch's psyche alongside that of a cloned individual. They are set side-by-side as unusual human specimens and a sort of equivalence is made between their emotional concerns. One doesn't have the strong sense that either the eunuch or the clone suffers more than the other. It is left an open question.

The title character was kidnapped as a child, castrated, and served a prince as his servant for a while. Later, he was able to have a son by cloning himself. The book opens with the son at age ten and explores the concerns of father and son.

It is also unusual in that the eunuch has a traditional, old-school eunuch job, but is very much a member of the modern world, in that he participates in a cloning project.