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Eunuch
Young Mohammed Nasser is kidnapped by Arabic raiders and brutally castrated in order to oversee a bizarre and wealthy prince's harem in a Persian Gulf oil emirate. Nasser grows into adulthood during his enslavement and eventually escapes with a beautiful member of the harem. A now much older Mohammed Nasser brings his 10 year old son, Osama, to consult with a well known New York doctor. Dr. Lewin wonders why Nasser wants fertility testing on a 10 year old boy. Nasser reveals that his son was cloned. He then begins relating his fascinating life story which begins in a tiny Muslim village by the Red Sea, moves to the Persian Gulf, then to France, and finally to the United States. Dr. Lewin is enthralled as Nasser details his rise to influence in the United Nations and political power in Eritrea. The doctor agrees to the testing and Osama places his future in the hands of physicians who later discover that the cloning process has caused irreversible damage. Nasser questions whether his bloodline will continue while Osama simultaneously battles uncertainty and the difficult challenges and celebrity that lie ahead for the world's first cloned human being.
252 pages, Paperback
First published September 12, 2008
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March 4, 2012
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.
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.
Displaying 1 of 1 review