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Lavinia

Ursula Le Guin

An exceptional combination of history and mythology from the author of A WIZARD OF EARTHSEA: `A novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves¿s I, CLAUDIAS¿ Publishers Weekly

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Reviews

  

'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't 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 father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's 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 son's hand and carrying his father on his back.

 

"This is a book that is as perfect as an autumn day or a truly great wine. This is life itself, coaxed onto the page. Such a perfect balance of feeling, metre and storytelling it is hard to describe."

Guy Haley

DEATHRAY

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Lavinia

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£14.99
Hardback
304 pages
234 x 153 mm
ISBN-10: 0753817683
ISBN-13: 9780575084582
Publication: May 2009
'lavinia' is also available in paperback format
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