Lavinia
Lavinia
Winner of the 2009 Locus award for best fantasy novel.
An exception combination of history and mythology from the author of A Wizard of Earthsea, Lavinia is a reimagining of the last six books of Virgil's Aeneid.
Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a vicarious warrior who loves peach; she is the 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. But Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a shade, a poet's ghost who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future and Aeneas' past...
To refuse Turnus is to start a war. Yet perhaps war is fated- and has been since Lavinia first heard the legend of Aeneas.
'Arguably her best novel.' - Kirkus
'Le Guin's subtly moving, playful, tactfully told story brought me to tears more than once.' - The Guardian
'A novel that deserves to be ranked with Robert Graves's I, Claudius.' - Publishers Weekly
'Compulsively readable… a winning combination of history and mythology featuring an unlikely heroine imaginatively plucked from literary obscurity.' - Booklist
'A magnificent act of reimagination, best read alongside a good translation of Virgil so that le Gyin's brilliant interweaving of Lavinia's story with the original can be fully appreciated.' - The Times
'A world rich in ritual and piety is evoked, one teeming with divine omens and auguries. It's beautifully done. (An) intriguing, luxuriously realised novel.' - Financial Times
'This is a book that is a s 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.' - Deathray
Ursula Le Guin has millions of devoted readers and has won many awards, including a National Book Award, a Pushcart Prize, the Harold D. Vursell Memorial Award of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Newbery Honor and the World Fantasy Award fro Life Achievement. She lives in Oregon, USA.
Lavinia
Hachette Australia
Author: Ursula Le Guin
ISBN: 9780575084599
Price: $32.99
