In this big, magnificent novel, Cave tells the story of Roxana, the Sogdian princess Alexander the Great married during the last stage of his conquest of the Persian satrapy of Bactria. In history, she was a 16-year-old pawn of her warlord father, a living chess piece in the game being played between the local Bactrian potentates (who were eager to curry favor with their new overlord) and Alexander (who sought to stabilize things in Persia preparatory to his march on India).
Cave’s stroke of genius is to take this bare outline—scarcely a mention in the scanty ancient sources on Alexander—and weave it not only into a first-rate historical novel but, more daringly, into a modern version of such epic Persian works as the Shahnameh of Firdowsi.
The seasons, the local religious rituals, the whole cultural heritage of a nation that was old when Greece was still a village—these things are seamlessly woven by Cave into her story about a smart, headstrong girl (called Rosanak in the novel) who knows the love of her life for a heartbreakingly short amount of time and then must spend the rest of her brief days (she was murdered shortly after Alexander’s death by one of his innumerable would-be successors) fighting to preserve her rights and the rights of the son she gave Alexander.
It’s a tribute to Cave’s storytelling ability that her book is every bit as exciting and engrossing with or without Alexander on stage. This is Roxana’s story from start to finish, and Cave enlists everything—from a large cast of characters, to very lively dialog, and even to a creative use of typeface and font—to underscore that point. There’s a vast amount of ancient Persian culture and lore packed into this book, but it’s firmly in the service of fleshing out the tale of the young woman who ancient sources say captured Alexander’s heart. No reader of historical fiction should miss this lavish, wonderful book.
By: Amazon.com readers...
"Roxana Romance, the Book of Roshanak, chronicles the life of Roxana (Roshanak), a Bactrian-Persian princess, from her marriage to Alexander the Macedonian conqueror when she is sixteen to the end of her life nearly 3 decades later. A story filled with love and lost, death and birth, rise and fall, where ancient civilizations clash and burn and mesh and create those who come after. While according to ancient historians, Roxana and her son were killed and their bodies never found, I can't help wishing that her real life had taken a path closer to the romance in this great lyrical novel."
"Finally, a sweeping story about a Persian princess, that spans across the fragrant Persian paradises through bloody battlefields and burned ruins, hanging gardens of Babylon and plum orchards of Macedonia and ending up in the exotic India, for those of us who have always been captivated by the ancient Persia and the Persians."
"Like historical novels? You will love this book. It's the story of Roxana, the young Persian woman who marries Alexander the Great. She is torn from her family and accompanies the famous warrior around Central Asia as he conquers everything in his path, and finds a life and calling of her own as travel and intrigue carry her through a fascinating series of adventures. This is more than a woman's tale: it's a story about love that is never lost, and how love transcends culture, race, and age. The author's extensive research illuminates life in the 4th century B.C.E. in what is now Iraq, Iran, Greece and India. There are plenty of glossaries, maps, timelines, and family trees to familiarize you with the times and the characters, who really come to life on the page. World history, fabulous palaces and cities, ancient gods and goddesses, love, sex and families, the incredible waste and sorrow of war, all of this made for a story I really couldn't put down and wanted more of at the end."
"The book definitely piqued my interest to know more about the characters and the events that happened during the life of Alexander the Great! Could one woman really have entranced so many men? A timeline, geneological charts and a detailed bibliography provide basis for pursuing the historical facts. But for those who prefer romances to historical detail -- just read for the pleasure!"
