The Last Song of Penelope
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4.4 • 17 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
The third book in award‑winning author Claire North's Songs of Penelope Trilogy, a "powerful, fresh, and unflinching" reimagining (Jennifer Saint) that breathes life into ancient myth and gives voice to the women who stand defiant in a world ruled by ruthless men.
Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . .
A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors - but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors - vengeance that will spark a civil war - but he's testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?
The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca's halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
North concludes her Ithaca trilogy (after House of Odysseus) with an intelligent revisionist portrayal of Odysseus's return. The story opens with a gloomy assessment of the wayward hero's island kingdom: "Everyone concurs that Ithaca is the pits.... Her inland forests are scraggy, wind-blasted things, her one city little more than a spider's town of twisted paths and leaning houses that seem to buckle and brace against some perpetual storm." Odysseus, who has finally come back, incognito, from the Trojan War, receives a similar scouring; he's depicted here as a "somewhat short man with a remarkably hairy back," who had performed "many vile and bitter deeds." His return sets in motion a violent showdown with the legion of suitors pursuing both his wife, Penelope, and his throne. North adds satisfying depth to the character of Penelope, whose loyalty to her kingdom takes precedence over devotion to her husband, whom she resents for disguising himself to gauge her faithfulness, and for failing to consider the "delicate political balance" she's worked to maintain. North closes out her saga on a high note.
