The Orpheus Descent
A Novel
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3.7 • 23 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
A cerebral literary thriller in the vein of Dan Brown, Matthew Pearl, and Sam Bourne, The Orpheus Descent follows classical philosopher Plato on a mysterious journey to Italy that will ignite a conspiracy that burns into the present.
The greatest thinker in human history, Plato, travels to Italy seeking initiation into the Orphic mysteries: the secret to the Underworld known only to the gods. But the knowledge he discovers is terrifying.
Two millennia later, twelve ancient golden tablets secreted in museums around the world hold sacred information known to only a few—the pathway the dead must follow to the afterlife. And archaeologist Lily Barnes has just found another on a dig in southern Italy. But this tablet is far more valuable—and dangerous—than the rest. It holds the key to hell itself.
Now, Lily is gone and her husband, Jonah, is desperate to find her. He knows she is alive—and in mortal danger—and he’s willing to go to hell itself to find her. But the deeper he descends on this dark and twisting journey, the more Jonah’s fear rises, for not everyone who travels where Lily has gone will find their way back. . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This thought-provoking thriller marks a return to form for the talented Harper (The Mosaic of Shadows) after a string of lackluster efforts. In 389 B.C.E., a young Plato, who has left Athens following the forced suicide of his mentor, Pericles, seeks Agathon, the most brilliant of Pericles's students, who claims to have found a valuable book of Pythagorean wisdom and has wondrous discoveries to share. Plato's quest for someone who, bafflingly, keeps staying one step ahead of him, parallels Jonah Barnes's present-day search for his archeologist wife, Lily, who vanished from the dig she was working on in Sibari, Italy, after finding a gold tablet. When Jonah finds messages, apparently from Lily, indicating that she wants to be left alone, everyone is ready to write off his concerns, but the absence of direct communication keeps Jonah suspicious. Along the way to a resolution of both suspenseful plotlines, Harper explores the fitness of philosophers as rulers, besides presenting a convincing portrait of Plato's time.
