Antonia’s Review: Ancient Historical fiction titles

Ancient History is my passion. The Greeks, the Romans, and the Egyptians I love them all. So, I love to come across literature based on the stories from these cultures.

 At the start of March 2020, we chose to read ‘Everything Under’ by Daisy Johnson. A wonderful, if not slightly controversial read for a modern audience, this book really captured Sophocles’ Oedipus if set in today’s world. As I had studied the Theban Plays, I knew what to expect from this tale, something my fellow bookseller Jane found hard to grasp until she read the plays and could understand the format of Johnson’s tale. Following Gretel, Johnson flicks between the present day and the past to explain her story to her mother whose memory is failing due to old age. With tragedy, prophecies, creatures in the water, and family secrets this dark tale will take you on a strange journey. I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy Greek Tragedy but be aware that unpleasant circumstances do occur throughout the story.

Circe by Madeline Miller was a book I couldn’t put down. A wonderful tale of Circe daughter of the Titan Helios god of the sun. Her gifts of witchcraft threaten the gods causing her to be banished to the island of Aiaia where she casts spells, gathers strange herbs, tames wild beasts, and has unexpected guests such as Odysseus. A wonderfully written tale with lots of familiar faces this story is perfect for any lover of Ancient Historical fiction.

A refreshing account from the perspective of a Trojan woman ‘The silence of the girls’ by Pat Baker follows Briseis who after the fall of her city is awarded to Achilles. Her struggles and fight for survival is shocking (to the extreme) and has made me view ‘great men’ such as Achilles and Odysseus in a different light. You become immersed into the world of The Iliad but from the viewpoint of the Trojan women who once were queens and ladies, now mere slaves to the Greeks. The way Baker describes the harsh realities these women faced can most certainly be believed as fact rather than fiction and are most certainly not for the faint-hearted.  I would recommend this story, especially if studying Ancient Historical texts as it really makes you think about the different perspectives of history: “Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, godlike Achilles… how the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him ‘the butcher’.”