Ithaca

''Claire North brings a powerful, fresh and unflinching voice to ancient myth - darkly fascinating, raw and breathtaking'' Jennifer Saint, author of Sunday Times bestseller Ariadne

***A Sunday Times Historical Fiction Book of the Year***

This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Beyond Ithaca''s shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women - and their goddesses - that will change the course of the world.

''The greatest power we women can own is that which we take in secret.''

Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the isle of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom.

Penelope was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. While he lived, her posit