Troy

The transition from teenage to adult fiction is notoriously difficult since young adults have preoccupations rooted in both sides of the age divide. Geras has succeeded in crossing this bridge with Troy: the ten year siege propels her young characters prematurely into the adult world of love, death and responsibility. The story begins resonantly in the Blood Room - graphically named for the wounds endured by Trojan soldiers. It is here, where the horrors of war are most tellingly encapsulated, that the goddess Aphrodite toys with sisters Marpessa and Xanthe, causing them both to fall in love with the same man. The Olympian gods are never far away - directing events for their own amusement and distraction with compassion or malevolence. Out of the double bind of a prolonged siege and omnipotent gods emerge characters who enthral and convince because they rise above the constraints of their lives to find their own paths through the ruins of all they have known. The triumphs and tragedies of Troy may be familiar territory but Geras reveals the human stories behind the historical events. Hector and Andromache, Paris and Helen, Priam and Hercules - all are given frailties which reveal the human experiences of love and betrayal and endear the characters to the reader. Troy is a long and challenging book shot through with the rhythms of speech: the beautifully observed gossip of the three kitchen crones with their commentaries on events past and present; Alastor's transparent - and successful - attempts to persuade Marpessa into his bed; the deeply felt internal dialogue of characters trying to weather the misfortunes which befall them. The book ends with hope of a new beginning both for those exiled from Troy and those who remain within the shattered city. This affirmation of the strength and creativity of the human spirit transfuses the narrative with a quiet, assured power in which the reader can only rejoice.