THE SUN AT TWILIGHT

In this novel, which dramatizes the era of the Hittite Empire in the 13th century, a new monarch struggles to maintain his pious morality as others scheme for power.

Prince Tashmi-sharrumma becomes king after his father, Hattushili, dies after a protracted illness; henceforth, the new leader will be known as Tudhaliya, the fourth of his name. He’s haunted by doubts about the legitimacy of his ascension to the throne; his father was a usurper whose “sins had been many,” and who’d caused division among his subjects. Tudhaliya believes that his principal duty as the king is to embody the ideal of virtue, and, in doing so, to please the gods: the “ideal of justice had fired him since childhood. The gods blessed the clement, the just. An ugly man might be made beautiful by the practice of justice. And clemency was its bride.” Whenever his kingdom suffers bad fortune, whether it’s a loss of a battle or a plague, he wonders if it’s a sign of divine disfavor. However, his moral rectitude turns out to be a disadvantage in a morally murky world; he’s surrounded by people he can’t trust, including several brothers who’d like to take his place—a precarious situation that author Holmes portrays in a sensitive manner. The new king’s wife, Ellat-gula, is extremely ambitious, and his mother, Puduhepa, is a woman of tremendous power and cunning who undermines his authority. The author depicts, with great dramatic power and subtlety, the immense loneliness of the king, who comes to feel alienated from his own power and idealism. His solitude is particularly agonizing after he has a falling-out with his cousin and best friend, Kurunta, with whom he has a complex relationship that the author develops with impressive delicacy. Holmes’ command of the relevant historical context is extraordinary, and she fills in gaps of scholarly knowledge—as relatively little is known about the real-life protagonist—with literary inventiveness and plausibility.

A historically rigorous and captivating tale of royalty.