Published in 2024
257 pages
8 hours and 27 minutes
Laura Shepperson was born in the UK and has always been fascinated by myths and myth retellings, studying Classical Studies at the University of Auckland. Her first novel, The Heroines, was a UK Sunday Times bestseller, published in the UK and US (under the title Phaedra) as well as Italy, Spain and Russia. In 2017 she was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish Prize for Fiction. Laura holds a Master of Studies in Creative Writing from the University of Cambridge. Laura lives outside London with her husband and two children.
What is this book about?
To the world he’s a legend.
To her he’s a liar .
Lavinia never asked to be fought over. But now Turnus, her childhood sweetheart, has waged a war that threatens to destroy all she holds dear, because Lavinia’s father has promised her to somebody else.
Aeneas, rumoured to be the son of Venus, is famed for his bravery, cunning and his vision for a new great Empire. He is also secretive, slippery, and Lavinia wonders why he will never discuss the past he left behind.
So when a stranger arrives in the camp with stories about Aeneas that suggest he is not what she seems, Lavinia realises she has to take her future, and that of her people, into her own hands.
This is the story of Rome’s origins as it’s never been told before, through the eyes of three women whose choices changed history.
