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Babylonia

Babylonia

Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

A CAPTIVATING TALE THAT CHARTS THE CONTROVERSIAL LIFE AND RISE TO POWER OF SEMIRAMIS, THE ONLY FEMALE RULER OF THE ASSYRIAN EMPIRE

There are whispers of her fame, in the land long since turned to dust. The Queen who rose from nothing – and changed everything . . .

Ancient Assyria, 9th century BC.

An orphan is raised on the outskirts of a brutal empire. Heir to a tragic prophecy, Semiramis dreams of wielding power and escaping her destiny.

Far away, a reluctant prince walks the corridors of his gilded palace in a city built by the gods. Ninus would rather spend his days in books and poetry than conquering the world of men. But when he meets Onnes, a broken, beautiful warrior, something awakens in them both. And as they grow into young men, their friendship deepens into something fiercer still.

That is until Semiramis arrives.

A savage love soon erupts between them all, even as a dark threat to the kingdom mounts. And before long, all three will be forced to learn the lesson of the gods – in Babylonia, you must bend the world to your will.

What doesn't bend, you break.

‘A stirring, addictive and intoxicating tale. . . Casati’s Babylonia has cemented her as one of the most skilled and exciting writers of historical fiction’ BEA FITZGERALD, author of GIRL, GODDESS, QUEEN

'An astounding achievement, one of the most vivid, powerful works of historical fiction I have ever read. . . I was utterly swept up in the world of this novel' ELODIE HARPER, author of The Wolf Den

‘Reading Babylonia is like reading an enchantment on the page, in which the unfathomable heroines of legend and history become living people’ ANNIE GARTHWAITE, author of Cecily

©2024 Costanza Casati (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Reviews

  • Costanza Casati has taken the fragments of stories about this extraordinary woman and recreated her world with a vivid panache
    The Times

About the author

Costanza Casati

Costanza Casati was born in Texas and grew up in a village in Northern Italy, where she studied Ancient Greek, and Ancient Greek literature, under one of the country’s most rigorous academic programmes. She is a graduate of the prestigious Warwick Writing MA in the UK, and has worked as a screenwriter and journalist. Her debut novel, Clytemnestra, was a Saturday Times bestseller and shortlisted for the HWA Debut Crown Award. Babylonia, set in the fierce world of the Assyrian Empire, is her second novel.
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