The Children of Jocasta
A Viscerally Atmospheric Retelling of Greek Myth
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4.4 • 24 Ratings
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
'Passionate and gripping' – Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe
A powerful retelling of Oedipus and Antigone that casts fresh light on the women the myths overlooked. From the Sunday Times bestselling author of Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes.
My siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . .
Jocasta is just fifteen when she is ordered to marry the King of Thebes, an old man she has never met. But it is her duty to produce an heir, who will alter the course of her life forever.
Ismene is the same age when she is attacked in the palace she calls home. Since the day of her parents' tragic deaths, it had been the one place she felt safe. But with a single act of violence, all that is about to change.
With the turn of these two events, a tragedy is set in motion. But not as you know it . . .
'A wonderful and inventive take on an ancient tale' – The Times
'Haynes’s fascination with this long vanished world is evident in every line' – The Guardian
'Glorious, gripping and brutal . . . I loved it' – Victoria Derbyshire, journalist and broadcaster
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Praise for Natalie Haynes:
'Witty, gripping, ruthless' – Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid's Tale, via X
'The great champion of women in Greek myth' – Daily Mail
‘A fierce feminist exploration of female rage, written with wit and empathy’ – Glamour
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The legends of Oedipus and his daughter Antigone are told through two interwoven story lines in Haynes's dark, elegant novel (following The Furies). An urgent, first-person narrative introduces Ismene just as she learns of the murder of her sister, Antigone. Then, a statelier third-person voice introduces Jocasta, as she is giving birth. The narrative flashes back to Jocasta's reluctant marriage to unappealing King Laius, who's in desperate need of an heir. Jocasta's newborn (who will grow to be Oedipus) is whisked away from Jocasta, who's told that the baby did not survive. Grief over the loss of her child lingers, and Jocasta becomes closer to her brother, Creon, distancing herself from the royal family. Decades later, Laius is killed by Oedipus, who woos Jocasta, despite her age. Ismene's narrative also flashes back, to her idyllic childhood with siblings Antigone, Eteocles, and Polynices. The first half of the novel is dominated by Jocasta and, after Oedipus's ascent to the throne, switches primarily to Ismene and her grief when Antigone sacrifices herself to bring an honorable burial to her brothers, war casualties fighting on different sides. The hopefulness of her voice plays evocatively against Jocasta's more ominous and somber narrative. Haynes's greatest achievement is imagining a full world surrounding Sophocles's tragedies, thrusting two minor characters in their respective plays to the forefront and bringing the myths vividly to life.
