Publisher: Head of Zeus, 2021
Genre: Fiction
Themes: Ancient Pompeii, slaves, brothel
My rating (out of 5): ❤❤❤❤
If, like me, you spent most of your history lessons looking out the window and didn't really absorb very much about the ancient Roman Empire, nil desperandum, as you will still manage perfectly well with this book.
Set in first century Pompeii, the story follows the life of Amara, a young Greek woman who has been shipped to Pompeii as a slave and then bought by the owner of The Wolf Den brothel. As the daughter of a doctor, she was bought up in relatively comfortable circumstances, but a series of terrible events turned her life upside down and she is now trapped in an endless cycle of fear and degradation with almost no hope of escape. Amara is one of a group of slaves working in the Wolf Den, and they do what they can to protect one another from serious harm, but Amara knows that if she wants anything better for herself, she must make the brothel owner see that using her education can bring him greater reward than the pittance he is charging for her to accommodate his customers.
Although this book is set in the first century AD, there is a modern feel to the writing style and Elodie Harper allows her characters to use language in a way that makes them more relatable to a modern reader. The framework of the novel is historically accurate but it never becomes over-laden with detail that would detract from the story-line. Even Shakespeare took this approach in order to appeal to the wider public and that certainly didn't do him any harm.
This is a good read but if you would like more pith to your Roman history may I recommend the book Pompeii by Mary Beard.
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