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Description/Synopsis: 'Kristina O'Donnelly takes the immortal tale of Troy – gods, heroes, and battles, but gives us the woman's take. The strong women that are victimized by the violence, yet survive and ultimately rise above it. O'Donnelly has done a great job taking the violent male-centered story of The Iliad and bringing it a female perspective. Men get the glory, women do the suffering (men suffer too, of course, but it's often their choice--women have fewer choices, and had fewer yet in those ancient days). Andromakhe is a must-read story for 2006.' Rob Preece, Author Veil of the Goddess. -- In Classic Literature, Trojan hero Hektôr and his wife Andromache are the archetypical loving and loyal couple. Andromache’s name conjures up an appealing vision of Hektôr's lovely and devoted other half, bravely suffering the loss of all her loved ones, mother, father, seven brothers, husband, son and friends. Most novels about the Trojan War end with the Fall of Troy. But here, as we dwell in Andromâkhe’s life, we have an account that encompasses the main as well as pre and post-Iliad years. Love, hate, greed, war, intrigue, heroes and villains combine with authenticated geography/history, offering an intimate view into the Bronze Age. We meet her at age thirteen, as a Princess in Mysian Thébé, and follow her life from marriage to Hektôr, Prince of Troia, through the siege of Troia by the Achaians – modern day Greeks – and Troy’s destruction. But Fates have declared that she must survive and triumph over more heartbreak and tragedy. After Troia’s fall, she is tossed to Epirus—modern day Albania—as a captive, where Hermione, daughter of King Menelos, tries to murder her, then back to Teuthrania, near Mysia, where she rises as the Patroness of the Kingdom of Pergamos—modern day Bergama, in Turkey. Haunted by flashes of a previous life in a land called Shardana, she has a mysterious bond with Alexis (Paris) Prince of Troy. Admired by the legendary Memnon, King of Ethiopia, who comes to Troia’s aid after Hektôr’s death, to win her as prize, to Pyrrhos Neoptolemus, son of Akhilles, who enslaves her and loves and hates her at the same time, to Hektôr’s brother Helenos, a warrior, seer, a priest of Apollo, and King, men battle gods and fates to win Hektôr’s widow, whose heart remains faithful to him even beyond his death. |
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