Daughters of Sparta - Claire Heywood

Written by Claire Heywood
Read by Mira Dovreni
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Release date: June 22, 2021
Duration: 10:39:08

For millennia, men have told the legend of the woman whose face launched a thousand ships—but now it’s time to hear her side of the story. Daughters of Sparta is a tale of secrets, love, and tragedy from the women behind mythology’s most devastating war, the infamous Helen and her sister Klytemnestra.

As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivaled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece. But such privilege comes at a cost. While still only girls, the sisters are separated and married to foreign kings of their father’s choosing—

Helen remains in Sparta to be betrothed to Menelaos, and Klytemnestra is sent alone to an unfamiliar land to become the wife of the powerful Agamemnon. Yet even as Queens, each is only expected to do two things: birth an heir and embody the meek, demure nature that is expected of women.

But when the weight of their husbands’ neglect, cruelty, and ambition becomes too heavy to bear, Helen and Klytemnestra must push against the constraints of their society to carve new lives for themselves, and in doing so, make waves that will ripple throughout the next three thousand years.

Daughters of Sparta is a vivid and illuminating reimagining of the Siege of Troy, told through the perspectives of two women whose voices have been ignored for far too long.

Mira Dovreni’s narration of this reimagining of the Trojan War from the points of view of Klytemnestra and her sister, Helen, will enthrall lovers of mythology. Tyndareos offers his daughters to Agamemnon and Menelaos as a means of enhancing his power. Helen marries Menelaos, and Klytemnestra marries Agamemnon, each enduring as dutiful, if resentful, wives. Dovreni’s Greek pronunciations are excellent, and her storytelling skills are exceptional. Paris spirits Helen off to Troy, the Greeks gather for war, Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter, Iphigenia, for a favorable wind, and Klytemnestra swears vengeance. The novel’s focus is on women and their place in society rather than on the war. Dovreni makes each poignant moment ring true, and Heywood makes us wonder: Was Helen solely to blame for the Trojan War? …. � AudioFile 2021

I personally think two separate narrators would have added to the audio……J