An unusual blend of travel writing, fantasy, time travel, ancient Egyptian history, and murder mystery.
The story is narrated by Myhat, a hat that is far more than an ordinary piece of clothing. Myhat can experience the world through the person wearing it—it can see, hear, smell, feel and taste, and it can even perceive the wearer's thoughts, memories, dreams and fears. This makes the hat an unusual narrator because it can observe events while also experiencing the inner world of the people who wear it.
The story begins with Ed and Ana travelling in Egypt. According to the author's description, Myhat first travels to Egypt in 1989 on Ed's head, and the story involves three journeys to Egypt. From there, the narrative moves beyond ordinary tourism and into a much more imaginative story involving travel through space and time.
One of the most interesting aspects is the transition from modern Egypt to an imagined experience of ancient Egypt. The book introduces ancient Egyptian figures and settings, including Ameny, a young Egyptian prince or royal figure. In one excerpt shared by Buffry, Ed and Ana encounter Ameny's drawings, which include not only familiar ancient-Egyptian subjects but also seemingly impossible images of planes, helicopters, astronauts, spaceships and cars. This creates one of the book's central mysteries: how could knowledge or images of the future appear in the ancient past?
The title reflects Myhat's growing understanding of its own nature. At first, Myhat thinks of itself as an extraordinary hat with remarkable abilities. But as it experiences different people, places and periods of history, it comes to believe that it is something much greater—a kind of divine observer that has seen the world "through the eyes of the Divine."
The overall themesThe book explores ideas such as:
Time and history — what happens when different periods of history seem to overlap?
Ancient Egypt and mythology — gods, pharaohs, crowns and Egyptian culture play an important role.
Identity and consciousness — Myhat's ability to experience the thoughts and memories of its wearers raises questions about what it means to be conscious.
The relationship between humans and the divine — the narrator gradually develops a sense of itself as more than an object.
Mystery and murder — the story eventually incorporates a murder-mystery element alongside its fantasy and historical setting.
In one sentence, MyHat in Egypt is essentially the story of an extraordinary, almost supernatural hat that accompanies travellers in Egypt and becomes the narrator of an imaginative journey that moves from modern tourism into ancient Egypt, time travel, mystery and questions about divinity.Alun Buffry's own ldescription of the book summarises it as taking the reader from modern-day tourism in Egypt to fantasy time travel and a murder mystery in ancient Egypt
