Her story pulls back the veil on the thousands of women who lived behind the scenes of the Greek army camp—concubines, nurses, prostitutes, the women who lay out the dead—as gods and mortals spar, and as a legendary war hurtles toward its inevitable conclusion. A washington post notable book one of the best books of the year: npr, the economist, financial times Shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award Finalist for the Women’s Prize for FictionHere is the story of the Iliad as we’ve never heard it before: in the words of Briseis, Trojan queen and captive of Achilles.
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Lavinia
In a richly imagined, lavinia, beautiful new novel, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voiceIn The Aeneid, Vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, with whom he is destined to found an empire. Now, ursula K. Le guin gives lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills.
When a fleet of trojan ships sails up the Tiber, Lavinia decides to take her destiny into her own hands. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long. Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come.
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The Song of Achilles: A Novel
Ann patchett“mary renault lives again!” declares emma donoghue, referring to The Song of Achilles, author of Room, profoundly moving, Madeline Miller’s thrilling, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.
Ecco Press.
CIRCE
1 new york times bestseller--named one of the best books of the year by npr, amazon, time, the washington post, People, Bustle, Entertainment Weekly, Newsweek, the A. V. Club, boston globe, buzzfeed, audible, self real simple, the guardian, nypl, kirkus, thrillist, Christian Science Monitor and Refinery 29, BookPage, Goodreads, Seattle Times, Electric Literature, Publishers Weekly, Book Riot, Paste, and Business Insider Ecco Press.
A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" Alexandra Alter, " this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, The New York Times. In the house of helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born.
Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, the murderous Medea, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, and, including the Minotaur, where she hones her occult craft, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, and circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, too, for a woman who stands alone, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians.
A Thousand Ships
This was never the story of one woman, or two. The devastating consequences of the fall of Troy stretch from Mount Olympus to Mount Ida, from the citadel of Troy to the distant Greek islands, and across oceans and sky in between. Ecco Press. It was the story of all of them. These are the stories of the women embroiled in that legendary war and its terrible aftermath, as well as the feud and the fatal decisions that started it all.
. Powerfully told from an all-female perspective, girls and goddesses who, A Thousand Ships gives voices to the women, for so long, have been silent. Ten seemingly endless years of brutal conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over, and the Greeks are victorious.
The Penelopiad Canongate Myths
The maids form a chanting and singing chorus, which focuses on two questions that must pose themselves after any close reading of the Odyssey: What led to the hanging of the maids, and what was Penelope really up to? The story as told in the Odyssey doesn’t hold water: there are too many inconsistencies.
Canongate Books. Describing her own remarkable vision, the author writes in the foreword, I’ve chosen to give the telling of the story to Penelope and to the twelve hanged maids.
Milkman: A Novel
. Original, funny, disarmingly oblique and unique. The guardianin an unnamed city, middle sister stands out for the wrong reasons. Canongate Books. Despite middle sister’s attempts to avoid him―and to keep her mother from finding out about her maybe-boyfriend―rumors spread and the threat of violence lingers.
Winner of the man Booker Prize“Everything about this novel rings true. So when a local paramilitary known as the milkman begins pursuing her, she suddenly becomes “interesting, ” the last thing she ever wanted to be. She reads while walking, for one.
The Porpoise: A Novel
This contemporary story mirrors the ancient legend of Antiochus, whose love for the daughter of his dead wife was discovered by the adventurer Appolinus of Tyre. From the whitbread and los angeles times prize-winning author of the curious incident of the dog in the Night-Time, fantastical novel about the theft of female agency by rapacious men and the ways in which archetypal stories can warp history and the presentMark Haddon's breathtaking novel begins with a harrowing plane crash: Maja, a stunningly ambitious, is killed, the pregnant wife of the unimaginably wealthy Philippe, but their daughter Angelica survives.
Ecco Press. The tale appeared in many forms through the ages; Apollinus becoming the swashbuckling Pericles in Shakespeare's eponymous play. The language is rich and gorgeous; the conjured worlds are perfectly imagined; the plot moves forward at a ferocious pace. But as much as haddon plays with myth and meaning, his themes speak deeply to the current moment.
Philippe's obsession with the girl's safety morphs into something sinister and grotesque as she grows into a beautiful teen. Canongate Books. In a bravura feat of storytelling, Haddon recounts his many exploits in thrilling fashion, mining the meaning of the old legends while creating parallels with the monstrous modern world Angelica inhabits.
House of Names: A Novel
Clytemnestra rules mycenae now, along with her new lover Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war. Canongate Books. House of names “is a disturbingly contemporary story of a powerful woman caught between the demands of her ambition and the constraints on her gender…Never before has Tóibín demonstrated such range, ” The Washington Post.
And it is the story of the vengeful electra, on the return of her brother, who watches over her mother and Aegisthus with cold anger and slow calculation, until, she has the fates of both of them in her hands. A washington post notable fiction book of the year * Named a Best Book of 2017 by NPR, The Boston Globe, The Guardian, St.
Louis dispatch from the thrilling imagination of bestselling, award-winning Colm Tóibín comes a retelling of the story of Clytemnestra and her children—“brilliant…gripping…high drama…made tangible and graphic in Tóibín’s lush prose” Booklist, starred review. I have been acquainted with the smell of death.
So begins clytemnestra’s tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband King Agamemnon left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Judged, despised, cursed by gods, clytemnestra reveals the tragic saga that led to these bloody actions: how her husband deceived her eldest daughter Iphigeneia with a promise of marriage to Achilles, only to sacrifice her; how she seduced and collaborated with the prisoner Aegisthus; how Agamemnon came back with a lover himself; and how Clytemnestra finally achieved her vengeance for his stunning betrayal—his quest for victory, greater than his love for his child.
Lavinia
Lavinia grows up knowing nothing but peace and freedom, until suitors come. Le guin gives lavinia a voice in a novel that takes us to the half-wild world of ancient Italy, when Rome was a muddy village near seven hills. Her mother wants her to marry handsome, ambitious Turnus. But omens and prophecies spoken by the sacred springs say she must marry a foreigner—that she will be the cause of a bitter war—and that her husband will not live long.
Now, ursula K. In a richly imagined, lavinia, beautiful new novel, vergil’s hero fights to claim the king’s daughter, an acclaimed writer gives an epic heroine her voice In The Aeneid, with whom he is destined to found an empire.
Regeneration Contemporary Fiction, Plume
. His reason: the war was a senseless slaughter. It is a story of a battle for a man's mind in which only the reader can decide who is the victor, who the vanquished, and who the victim. One of the most amazing feats of fiction of our time, Regneration has been hailed by critics across the globe. As august 2014 marks the 100-year anniversary of World War I, this book is as timely and relevant as ever.
Canongate Books. It is a war saga in which not a shot is fired. He was officially classified "mentally unsound" and sent to Craiglockhart War Hospital. There a brilliant psychiatrist, Dr. Plume Books. William rivers, set about restoring Sassoon's "sanity" and sending him back to the trenches. This novel tells what happened as only a novel can.
Ecco Press.