“I who have nothing to lose that the poets have not already taken from me, only I will tell you the truth. I, who part the veil of time, will tell those stories that only the women tell.”

Ithaca is the first book in The Songs Of Penelope series by award-winning, best-selling British author, Claire North. On Ithaca, Penelope, queen of the western isles, has already waited eighteen years for her husband, Odysseus to return from Troy. But that, and politely tolerating the hundred suitors vying for her hand (because surely Odysseus is dead?!) are not the only things on her mind.

Pirates have been raiding her villages, Illyrians, she’s meant to believe, but privately she’s not convinced. And since none of their men returned from Troy, Ithaca has very few men of the right age, ability or training to defend against these raids. Calling on those suitors, who are more concerned for their own interests, is unlikely to help; accepting a suitor, as the Council suggests, would likely result in bloodshed between the rest, and danger to herself and her son, Telemachus.

And just to add another wrinkle to the cloth, Orestes and Elektra turn up from Mycenae with news of Agamemnon’s murder, convinced that their murdering mother, her cousin Clytemnestra, has sought refuge on Ithaca.

But while the men: the Council, the suitors and their fathers, her son, all regard the women as unimportant, of no account, Penelope is no mental slouch. She and her women have been quietly busy behind the scenes: all those grieving widows and mothers, those fatherless daughters, the women who have been farming and hunting and crafting and trading in the absence of their men will be, it turns out, not only prepared to, but with a bit of training, also capable of, defending Ithaca.

“Take it from a queen – the greatest power we women can own is that we take in secret.”

Using the goddess Hera as her narrator, North’s quick summary of the situation that many other poets describe, is refreshingly frank, and quite delightful. Hera’s commentary on events and players, on the affairs of gods and mortals, is irreverent, insightful and often darkly funny. “The poets will tell you a lot about the heroes of Troy. Some details they have correct; in others, as with all things, they lie. They lie to please their master. I sing for no creature’s pleasure but my own, and can attest that what you think you know of the last heroes of Greece, you do not know at all.”

Even novices to the Greek myths and legends will be able to, with perhaps only a cursory check of Wikipedia, thoroughly enjoy North’s treatment of Penelope’s story. This is Greek myth at its most palatable and entertaining, and the second instalment, House Of Odysseus, is eagerly anticipated.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK.