Fantastic mythology becomes universal, specific, and modern in Anubis. The Libyan Tuareg author Ibrahim al-Koni has used Tuareg folklore about Anubis, the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld, to craft a novel that is both a lyrical evocation of the desert’s beauty and a chilling narrative in which thirst, incest, patricide, animal metamorphosis, and human sacrifice are more than plot devices.