The Sweet Girl
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3.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
From the award-winning author of The Golden Mean, a captivating, wholly transporting new novel that follows Aristotle’s strong-willed daughter as she shapes her own destiny: an unexpected love story, a tender portrait of a girl and her father, and an astonishing journey through the underbelly of a supposedly enlightened society.
Aristotle has never been able to resist a keen mind, and Pythias is certainly her father’s daughter: besting his brightest students, refusing to content herself with a life circumscribed by the kitchen, the loom, and, eventually, a husband. Into her teenage years, she is protected by the reputation of her adored father, but with the death of Alexander the Great, her fortunes suddenly change. Aristotle’s family is forced to flee Athens for a small town, where the great philosopher soon dies, and orphaned Pythias quickly discovers that the world is not a place of logic after all, but one of superstition. As threats close in on her—a rebellious household, capricious gods and goddesses—she will need every ounce of wit she possesses, and the courage to seek refuge where she least expects it.
This ebook edition includes a Reading Group Guide.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lyon returns to ancient Greece for her second novel, this time focusing on Aristotle's daughter, Pythias. At the outset, she is seven years old and devoted to her famous father, curious about the world around her and displaying her father's powers of debate and observation. She chafes at woman's work and the limitations of her gender, a problem that only grows as she matures and finds herself caught between Aristotle's world of inquiry and the woman's world where she is expected to dwell. When Alexander the Great dies, Aristotle a fellow Macedonian and Alexander's teacher must flee to the countryside, where he dies. Aristotle's will dictates a course for the rest of his daughter's life including marriage to Nicanor, a distant cousin, which would entail surrendering to a domesticity for which Pythias, now a teenager, is too clever by half. Lyons writes the tale of Pythias's efforts to escape, and the price she must pay to claim the life she desires. Writing in the present tense, Lyon does a remarkable job of making Pythias, her ancient world, and her eternal problems raw and compelling. While this book necessarily lacks the surprising freshness of The Golden Mean, Lyons nonetheless lives up to her promise, delivering to readers a modern twist on the ancient world.
