Review
In this big, magnificent novel, Cave tells the story of Roxana, the Sogdian princess Alexander the Great married during the last stage of his conquest of the Persian satrapy of Bactria. In history, she was a 16-year-old pawn of her warlord father, a living chess piece in the game being played between the local Bactrian potentates (who were eager to curry favor with their new overlord) and Alexander (who sought to stabilize things in Persia preparatory to his march on India).
Cave's stroke of genius is to take this bare outline--scarcely a mention in the scanty ancient sources on Alexander--and weave it not only into a first-rate historical novel but, more daringly, into a modern version of such epic Persian works as the Shahnameh of Firdowsi. The seasons, the local religious rituals, the whole cultural heritage of a nation that was old when Greece was still a village--these things are seamlessly woven by Cave into her story about a smart, headstrong girl (called Rosanak in the novel) who knows the love of her life for a heartbreakingly short amount of time and then must spend the rest of her brief days (she was murdered shortly after Alexander's death by one of his innumerable would-be successors) fighting to preserve her rights and the rights of the son she gave Alexander.
It's a tribute to Cave's storytelling ability that her book is every bit as exciting and engrossing with or without Alexander on stage. This is Roxana's story from start to finish, and Cave enlists everything--from a large cast of characters, to very lively dialog, and even to a creative use of typeface and font--to underscore that point. There's a vast amount of ancient Persian culture and lore packed into this book, but it's firmly in the service of fleshing out the tale of the young woman who ancient sources say captured Alexander's heart. No reader of historical fiction should miss this lavish, wonderful book. --Steve Donoghue, Historical Novels Review Online, May 2009
About the Author
A. J. Cave is an Iranian-American novelist.
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