The Unwrapping
Nicholas's debut novel, The Unwrapping, will be published by Provoco in October 2025. Set against the backdrop of Egypt's fifth cholera pandemic in 1900, this satirical work explores the human condition during times of crisis.
SYNOPSIS
It’s 1900 and an unwrapping had occurred of the long since dead pharaoh, Augustkamoun. Amongst those that witnessed the release of the fifth cholera outbreak were: Ammon, Femi, Keket, and Kissa. They took word of what they saw back to their living quarters in Cairo.
The pharaohs were led by Augustkamoun, a motley crew that included: Nefertiti, Ramses, Seti, Pepi, Khufu, Khafre, Djoser, and Snefru. They ran the city with unscrupulous cruelty and were responsible for their own political domains: health, education, transport, defence, and the home office
As the first lockdown was announced the pharoahs ran for the safety of their own tombs, where the virus wouldn’t be able to harm them. Then they received instructions to sequester the homes of the public for use as test centres. The minions: Tarek, Nour, Huda, Karim, Kissa, Femi, Keket, Ammon, and Husain, were left to do battle with it.
Huda Shawari was the protagonist and Egypt’s first feminist. Her aim was to bring a revolution against the pharaohs. She sent out Femi and Keket to enlist more support. Karim and Kissa tried to find a cure for the virus too, they travelled around searching for the equipment they needed to make tests, beds, and vaccines.
Nour and Tarek were a married couple. Tarek wanted to take up mummification to improve their lives. He went off to learn his trade, then returned to Cairo to find work.
Huda put Husain and his son Ammon to the task of finding the Rosetta stone. It is re-carved so the hieroglyphics can be read by the masses not just the royal few. They also visited the lost city of Aten to bring back a roll of parchment with rules that had been disobeyed by the pharaohs themselves.
The pharaohs were planning to use the love spells to turn all women into their play and work things. Some of them went off to organize a wild party, which ended in the capture by a newspaper hack of Pepi and Ramses, who were canoodling with new loves. Their partners Cleopatra and Twosret left them.
Augustkamoun succumbed to an awful curse released by the opening of King Tutankhamun’s tomb. It targeted their reproductive organs rendering them incapable of sowing their wicked seeds anymore. His partner Nitocris decided to swing to the side of the minions, as she’s had enough of the pharaoh’s patriarchal regime.
Tarek took care of the embalming of Augustkamoun and makes a splendid job of it. He was called in to do the same for the rest of them, and to put a golden tongue into each of their mouths so they can speak to the lord of the underworld, Osiris.
For each pharaoh to travel to the afterlife, they must negotiate Osiris who weighed them with the feather of truth. If he decided that they had acted in mistrustful and deceitful ways their bodies will be cast into purgatory.
