Dear BookBrowsers,
In this issue, we review some highly anticipated new releases by very popular authors, all of which feature a historical angle along with some exceptionally memorable characters. Pulitzer Prize-winner Anthony Doerr's
Cloud Cuckoo Land spans millennia, from the
Fall of Constantinople to the 22nd century, the disparate threads linked together by an ancient Greek tome that might be the key to a better world.
Pat Barker returns with the second book in her planned trilogy imagining the inner lives of Greek mythological heroines. In
The Women of Troy, the reader follows Briseis as she grapples with the destruction of her city in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Our "beyond the book" article explores the legendary life of the woman who will be the focus of the third book in this trilogy, the prophetess
Cassandra of Troy.
We also look at Colm Tóibín's
The Magician, a fictionalized biography of Thomas Mann, which juxtaposes the German author's internal struggle with his sexuality with the external turbulence of the second World War. In the accompanying "beyond the book," our reviewer compares Mann's brilliant novella
Death in Venice to the 1971 film adaptation by Italian director Luchino Visconti.
This issue also features a new
Wordplay and a
Giveaway, so make sure to enter for your chance to win a copy of Suzanne Feldman's World War I historical novel
Sisters of the Great War.
As always, thank you for being a part of BookBrowse.
Davina Morgan-Witts,
BookBrowse Publisher
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