Description

An exceptional combination of history and mythology an intriguing luxuriously realised novel FINANCIAL TIMES

Subtly moving playfula novel that brought me to tears more than once Lavinia is a delightful heroine GUARDIAN

Like Spartan Helen I caused a war She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her I caused mine because I wouldnt be given wouldnt be taken but chose my man and my fate The man was famous the fate obscure not a bad balance

Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium a victorious warrior who loves peace she is her fathers closest companion Now of an age to wed Lavinias mother favours her own kinsman King Turnus of Rutulia handsome heroic everything a young girl should want Instead Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet who comes to her in the gods holy place and tells her of her future and Aeneas past

If she refuses to wed Turnus Lavinia knows she will start a war but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy holding his sons hand and carrying his father on his back