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An unforgettable and deeply moving work of fiction
This powerful passionate and beautifully crafted retelling of the epic tale of Achilles recreates Homer's fated hero in a new and vivid reality. Elizabeth Cook's mesmerising poetic voice weaves the interlocking stories of Achilles and the central figures of his legend into a many-layered exploration of achievement and loss, of choice and inescapable destiny.
Born of the sea-nymph Thetis by the mortal King Peleus, hidden as a girl on Skiros until Odysseus discovers him, Achilles becomes the Greeks' greatest warrior at Troy. Into his story come others - among them Hector, Helen, Penthiseleia the Amazon Queen and the centaur Chilron; and finally John Keats, whose writings form the basis of a meditation on the nature of identity and shared experience. "An instant classic, I have never read anything like it. Cook retells Achilles' story, amking the reader feel that it exists in present tense. Her writing is charged: every moment matters, each word counts, as if time were runing out. It is as if the writing itself were a heroic enterprise...a terrifying, erotic tour de force" Kate Kellaway, Observer
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