Arthur Phillips Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Arthur Phillips is an American published author of fiction. His 2007 novel Angelica was adapted into a feature film in 2015.

His full name is Arthur Peter Monroe Phillips. He was born on April 23, 1969 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He identifies as Jewish. He attended Harvard University where he studied history. He graduated in 1990 with his B.A. in history. Phillips then went on to spend some time abroad, taking from 1990 to 1992 to live in Budapest.

Phillips then studied music. For four semesters, he studied how to play jazz saxophone at the prestigious Berklee College of Music from 1992 to 1993. He has also been a child actor, a speech writer, a failed entrepreneur, worked in advertising doing copy writing about medical devices, and was a jazz musician.

Phillips has also appeared on the popular quiz television show Jeopardy!. In 1997, he held the honor of becoming a five time champion. Later in 2005 he would be invited back to participate in the show’s Ultimate Tournament of Champions. While Arthur did well in the opening round of the game, he eventually would lose in the second round.

Starting in 2001 until 2003, the author also lived in Paris, France with his wife and son. He then moved back to New York. The author was also invited to read from a short story that he did on television. This American Life featured Phillips on its July 27, 2007 episode. In it, he read from “Wencelas Square”, his short story. The story gained some interest and Amazon Studios snapped up the change to produce it for film. Phillips is writing the script and Sophia Takal is attached to direct.

Prague is the first fictional book to be released by Arthur Phillips. If you are searching for an interesting book to read that is set abroad, this is a great choice! Check out this ambitious novel and see why people like Pat Conroy say this is a ‘rare book’ that comes along and helps define an entire generation, just as The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway did.

Even though the book has the title of Prague, the majority of this story takes place in Budapest, Hungary (mostly during the time frame of 1990). The plot of the novel focuses mainly on a group of young American ex-pats. These five different people have traveled to Budapest during the nineties to have a different life– but also to try and find fortune too.

Like many Americans who have left the country before them, they each have doubts in their head about whether things are better for people in Prague. Still, they are doing what they can to try and track down adventure and wealth in whatever form they can. If they can find inspiration while there or be a part of history while it is being made, so much the better.

While the story does follow these five Americans as part of a modern international lost generation, it also focuses on a lot of history of Hungary. Going through the previous generations, Phillips goes through the monarchy of Austria and Hungary all the way through the world wars. Different stories get woven in to create a portrait not just of the group of young Americans but the new city that they find themselves in.

This place is still getting over the many decades that it has gone through. The city is finding its way in a modern age after years of war, fascism, and Communism. As such, there is a contrast between the history of this place and the history that has yet to be made by these young people that forms and influences their lives.

Full of themes such as the search for authenticity, natural sincerity, the experience of feeling genuine nostalgia, and how young people are setting out to try and find the meaning in their lives for the first time, Prague is definitely an interesting read. This is a book that did well and was received positively by critics. The book won in 2003 in the category of best first fiction from the L.A. Times and Art Seidenbaum Award. Pick up a copy for yourself and experience all that this exciting story has to offer!

The Egyptologist was published in 2004. It is the second fictional novel released by Arthur Phillips. If you enjoy the novel Prague, then you should definitely make an effort to check out this novel that is being called inventive as well as witty and ‘brilliantly constructed’. Lovers of Egypt will also be interested when it comes to this book!

The main character in this book is a man named Ralph Trilipush. He is an Egyptologist, which basically means that an obsessive interest in the history and knowledge of Egypt and its people are what he does for a living.

All that Ralph wants is to track down the tomb of a king. So begins a story that is part informative, part labyrinth, as the reader follows the quest of this man to try and track down that apocryphal king’s tomb. The story starts out in 1922, on Egypt’s desert plains. Along the way, it will take the reader to unlikely locations such as Australian slums, Boston ballrooms, the World War’s battle fields, and even a turbulent royal court.

Meanwhile, Howard Carter is making history. He’s found the most interesting relic in archaeology for quite some time– the tomb of Tutankhamun. It’s a find that is going to make him famous and more than a few headlines. At the same time, there’s another Egyptologist that is not quite having so much success.

Ralph may have been educated at Oxford, but he’s also finding that he’s gotten himself into a very difficult situation. The problem is that he basically put his reputation professionally on the line as well as the fortune of the woman that he is engaged to. This is all thanks to a piece of hieroglyphic sexual content that is essentially pornography. Will it sink him or save him?

As a detective from Australia investigates a case that goes worldwide looking for killers, will Howard and Ralph find greater glory? Or will it all come crashing down? Read this book to find out!