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A timely reimagining of the story of Dionysus-Greek god of ecstasy, revelry, and ruin-and a captivating queer love story for readers of The Song of Achilles and Elektra.
Raised in a Greek legion, Phaidros has been taught to follow his commander's orders at all costs. But when Phaidros rescues a baby from a fire at Thebes's palace, his commander's orders cease to make sense: Phaidros is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple, and to keep the baby's existence a total secret.
Years later, struggling with panic attacks and flashbacks, Phaidros is enlisted by the Queen to find her son, Thebes' young crown prince, who has vanished to escape an arranged marriage. The search leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus, whose guidance is as wise as the events that surround him are strange. In Dionysus's company, Phaidros witnesses sudden outbursts of riots and unrest, and everywhere Dionysus goes, rumors follow about a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire.
In The Hymn to Dionysus, bestselling author Natasha Pulley transports us to an ancient empire on the edge of ruin to tell an utterly captivating queer love story about a man needing a god to remind him how to be a human.
"[A] fresh and stylish reimagining ... In her singular voice, Pulley crafts a nuanced story that enthralls the reader until the very last page. Fans of Greek myth retellings won't want to miss this one." ―Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Pulley brings out her favorite elements-palace intrigue, gallant lovers, masks, transformations, ambiguity, automata-and twists them into mesmerizing patterns ... This love story is witty, bittersweet, surprising, and compellingly readable." ―Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Amid a plethora of retellings of ancient Greek and Roman tales, it's Pulley's utterly unique and outrageously candid and witty hero Phaidros that makes this captivating yarn and its beautiful love story a standout." ―Booklist (starred review)
"A tightrope walk between madness and duty, creation and destruction ... The Hymn to Dionysus revisits a classic to explore the idea that love conquers all in more divine terms." ―Foreword Reviews
"A dazzling labyrinth of a book that pulls you in with both hands. Pulley's wild, charismatic Dionysus is sure to win your heart, and Phaidros's indefatigable spirit and wry humor will keep readers glued to the page. A fitting tribute to the god of divine madness." ―Luna McNamara, author of Psyche and Eros
"Pulley has given us more than an inputting stare into the clockwork violence we carry out numbly every day to prop up a collapsing world that's destroying us along with itself. This is more than a story of love and escape and broken chains. This is more than an exquisitely crafted tale. This book is a candle in a dark hour." ―Maya Deane, author of Wrath Goddess Sing
This information about The Hymn to Dionysus was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Natasha Pulley is the internationally bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, The Bedlam Stacks, The Lost Future of Pepperharrow, The Kingdoms, and The Half Life of Valery K. She has won a Betty Trask Award, been shortlisted for the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, the Royal Society of Literature's Encore Award, and the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize, and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. She lives in Bristol, England.
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