Lavinia - Ursula K. LeGuin

'Like Spartan Helen, I caused a war. She caused hers by letting men who wanted her take her. I caused mine because I wouldn't be given, wouldn't be taken, but chose my man and my fate. The man was famous, the fate obscure; not a bad balance.'
Lavinia is the daughter of the King of Latium, a victorious warrior who loves peace; she is her father's closest companion. Now of an age to wed, Lavinia's mother favours her own kinsman, King Turnus of Rutulia, handsome, heroic, everything a young girl should want. Instead, Lavinia dreams of mighty Aeneas, a man she has heard of only from a ghost of a poet, who comes to her in the gods' holy place and tells her of her future, and Aeneas' past . . . If she refuses to wed Turnus, Lavinia knows she will start a war - but her fate was set the moment the poet appeared to her in a dream and told her of the adventurer who fled fallen Troy, holding his son's hand and carrying his father on his back.

Ursula K. Le Guin is one of the finest writers of our time. Her books have attracted millions of devoted readers and won many awards, including the National Book Award, the Hugo and Nebula Awards and a Newbery Honor. Among her novels, The Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed and the six books of Earthsea have attained undisputed classic status; and her recent series, the Annals of the Western Shore, has won her the PEN Center USA Children's liter

A magnificent act of reimagination, best read alongside a good translation of Virgil (such as that of Robert Fagles, whose translation is quoted here) so that Le Guin's brilliant interweaving of Lavinia's story with the original can be fully appreciated.
THE TIMES

A world rich in ritual and piety is evoked, one teeming with divine omens and auguries. It's beautifully done. [An] intruiging, luxuriously realised novel.
THE FINANCIAL TIMES - James Lovegrove

Ursula Le Guin's vivid novel gives Lavinia a voice. It is a moving testament to the conversations that great writers sustain through the centuries.
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT - Dinah Birch

"Lavinia is a fantasy built on a fantasy, yet it rings true. Its author writes with a sophistication and clarity that make suspension of disbelief natural. Le Guin's ancient Latium is extraordinary, as is Virgil's, but her characters are rooted, real, ordinary."
THE OBSERVER

This is a book that is as perfect as an autumn day or a truly great wine. This is life itself, coaxed onto the page. Such a perfect balance of feeling, metre and storytelling it is hard to describe.
DEATHRAY - Guy Haley

Lavina is based on events in Virgil's Aeneid; the battle scenes do recall the film 300 or the epics of antiquity. But it's everyday pre-Roman life that fascinates Le Guin: rituals seasonal cycles and the role of women. Lavinia herself has a strong voice, and Le Guin's lyrical prose builds a heroic love story.
WATERSTONE'S BOOKS QUARTERLY

Le Guin has lovingly re-created the relatively simple Bronze age culture that ultimately gave birth to Rome. This is one of her finest achievements. It certainly deserves to be at the top of your 'must read' list.
INTERZONE - Laurence Osborn

If you enjoyed Virgil's Aeneid, you will enjoy seeing that one line fleshed out. If you like classical history, this is a fascinating glimpse of the little warrior states that eventually became part of Rome. For those who like poetic prose, a good story well told, and living through a different mind in another world, then Lavinia will be a book to enjoy again and again.
HISTORICAL NOVEL SOCIETY

Lavinia opens a thought provoking window into a long dead world, and offers something interesting from the hands of a writer who is extremely competent and passionately engaged with her subject matter. A fascinating read.
SUNDAY BUSINESS POST (IRELAND) - Alex Meehan

Impressively written and deftly handled, this is a graceful and enchanting novel that far from marring the legend Virgil created, delicately adds to it in a modest commentary on a character he left undone. Beautifully crafted and skillfully tackled.
DREAMWATCH TOTAL SCI FI

Le Guin is a composed writer, clear and measured, and her account of the life of Aeneas's last wife, a woman Virgil scoots over in the The Aeneid, is captivating. This is a work of passion, written with cool expertise: a cracker.
THE SUNDAY TIMES