The World Beyond: A Novel of Ancient Greece
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
429 B.C. After losing her family to the plague that strikes Athens in the second year of its war with Sparta, fifteen-year-old Rhea goes to live with her aunt and uncle. But when she fails to measure up to her aunt’s expectations, she finds herself facing an arranged marriage to a cruel man more than twice her age.
As she struggles to find a way to avoid the unwanted marriage, she hears about a handsome young athlete named Doros and resolves to catch a glimpse of him—no easy task in a society that believes daughters and wives belong in the home and should not go out in public without a chaperone. And is one glimpse enough?
When she climbs the Acropolis to appeal to the goddess Athena for help, she encounters another young man who intrigues her: Maron, a gifted sculptor and a slave. As their friendship grows, he urges her to risk everything for the life she wants. But does she have the courage to take such a leap?
With time running out, Rhea must decide whether to resign herself to the loveless marriage her society and the gods decree, or defy them and choose her own destiny in this poignant coming-of-age tale of love and the longing to be free.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Madden sets her transportive coming-of-age story in Athens during the Peloponnesian War. After high-spirited 15-year-old Rhea's entire family dies of the plague, she moves in with her aunt and strict uncle. Only months after losing her family, Rhea finds out her uncle has arranged for her to be married to a cruel older man, and soon she finds out the reason: to pay off her uncle's gambling debt. During an outing, Rhea finds a glimmer of hope when she becomes enamored with a handsome young athlete, all the while not realizing that Maron, a sculptor slave she has befriended, is in love with her. Rhea's powerlessness regarding her upcoming marriage leads to schemes to get out of it, even begging the man she is to marry to release her. She goes to Pericles's mistress for help, but Pericles has the plague and his mistress can't intervene. Rhea quietly rebels, sneaking out of her uncle's house and having lively, late-night adventures with a flute girl, her cousin, and Maron. Madden recreates the Age of Pericles with cunning, engaging characters and vivid descriptions of Athens, complete with its cultural mores and caste system. Historical sites the Acropolis, open-air markets, temples of the gods and goddesses, the Long Walls provide local color. (BookLife)
