A gimlet-eyed look at a fascinating period in history.
In Carrington’s historical novel, set during the reign of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, a young man aspires to become the greatest wrestler of his time.
Alexander longs to be a champion wrestler—he yearns to train at an elite palaestra and receive the laurel crown of victory from none other than the Caesar, Marcus Aurelius. He’s naturally gifted and has never been defeated, but for the time being he merely fights in disreputable matches (upon which drunks and criminals wager) arranged by his father, Marcus, a carpenter of modest means, in the Roman neighborhood the Subura. Such informal bouts can be dangerous—those who lose their bets can be violently vindictive, and a local gang leader, Flavius, aims to commandeer Alexander’s career for his own profit (such perils of ancient Rome are vividly depicted by the author). An opportunity arises when Marcus asks Aulus Virius, an old friend from his days in the navy, to help Alexander; he arranges for the youth to train with Gaius, a renowned wrestling coach. Part of the deal is that Marcus must return to the navy, a fraught exchange given the brewing of rebellion among the Germanic tribes and the Sarmatians. A bright future seems to dawn for Alexander, but his prospects dim when he is quickly expelled from Gaius’ school for illicit gambling and Marcus is killed in an ambush while at sea. In the aftermath of these disasters, Alexander’s mother, Elena, decides to move the two of them back to her homeland of Delos and enjoy the hospitality of her well-heeled brother, Nikos. Alexander begins to train again with Demetrius, a rival of Gaius and an old friend of Marcus. Alexander still aspires to become a great champion, and to win the love of Zoe, who was once the paramour of his chief competitor in Delos, the smug Dario.
Carrington’s command of the relevant historical information is extraordinary, and as a result both Rome and Delos are brought to pulsing life. For all its greatness and wealth, Rome is depicted here as a morally squalid place brimming with dangers and temptations to vice. Alexander’s ambition is palpable—he can’t bear the thought of sinking into eternal oblivion, his name forgotten. (He’s driven by a desire for “A place among the elite. A name held in the highest regard. A reputation worthy of the greatest wrestlers.”) The author provides a powerfully dramatic backdrop for Alexander’s quest for fame—while in Delos, he learns an extraordinary family secret, one his mother has zealously guarded his entire life that could potentially threaten them if discovered. Carrington’s writing style is straightforward and simple, unadorned by poetic embellishments or narrative gimmicks. The story’s strength lies in its engrossing plot and painstakingly crafted characters—there are no contrived types in this story, no obviously manufactured token personalities. (There is so much depth in the portrayal of Elena, she could warrant a novel of her own.) This is exactly what a discerning reader should expect from historical fiction—rigorous verisimilitude, complex characterization, and an enthralling plot.
A gimlet-eyed look at a fascinating period in history.Pub Date: May 24, 2025
ISBN: 9798991298605
Page Count: 248
Publisher: Albion Literary House
Review Posted Online: May 5, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.
Hannah’s new novel is an homage to the extraordinary courage and endurance of Frenchwomen during World War II.
In 1995, an elderly unnamed widow is moving into an Oregon nursing home on the urging of her controlling son, Julien, a surgeon. This trajectory is interrupted when she receives an invitation to return to France to attend a ceremony honoring passeurs: people who aided the escape of others during the war. Cut to spring, 1940: Viann has said goodbye to husband Antoine, who's off to hold the Maginot line against invading Germans. She returns to tending her small farm, Le Jardin, in the Loire Valley, teaching at the local school and coping with daughter Sophie’s adolescent rebellion. Soon, that world is upended: The Germans march into Paris and refugees flee south, overrunning Viann’s land. Her long-estranged younger sister, Isabelle, who has been kicked out of multiple convent schools, is sent to Le Jardin by Julien, their father in Paris, a drunken, decidedly unpaternal Great War veteran. As the depredations increase in the occupied zone—food rationing, systematic looting, and the billeting of a German officer, Capt. Beck, at Le Jardin—Isabelle’s outspokenness is a liability. She joins the Resistance, volunteering for dangerous duty: shepherding downed Allied airmen across the Pyrenees to Spain. Code-named the Nightingale, Isabelle will rescue many before she's captured. Meanwhile, Viann’s journey from passive to active resistance is less dramatic but no less wrenching. Hannah vividly demonstrates how the Nazis, through starvation, intimidation and barbarity both casual and calculated, demoralized the French, engineering a community collapse that enabled the deportations and deaths of more than 70,000 Jews. Hannah’s proven storytelling skills are ideally suited to depicting such cataclysmic events, but her tendency to sentimentalize undermines the gravitas of this tale.
Still, a respectful and absorbing page-turner.Pub Date: Feb. 3, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-312-57722-3
Page Count: 448
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 19, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2014
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.
A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.
When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.
A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9781250178633
Page Count: 480
Publisher: St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023
PERSPECTIVES
BOOK TO SCREEN
SEEN & HEARD
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