A Song to Drown Rivers is an epic historical fantasy inspired by the legend of Xishi, one of the famous Four Beauties of Ancient China. It delves into themes of womanhood, war, sacrifice, and love against all odds.
Her beauty hides a deadly purpose.
Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue, who believe the best fate for a girl is to marry well and support her family. When Xishi captures the attention of the renowned young military advisor, Fanli, he offers her a unique opportunity: to wield her beauty as a weapon. Her mission is to infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king, and weaken them from within, thereby avenging her sister’s murder and improving the lives of her people.
Trained by Fanli in everything from classical instruments to concealing emotions, Xishi hones her beauty into the perfect blade. The attraction between them is undeniable, burning away any falsehoods.
Within the enemy palace, Xishi is under the watchful eyes of the king’s advisors, while the king himself shows her great affection. Despite his gentleness, a lurking brutality means she can never let her guard down. As Xishi rises in the Wu court, the risk of being unmasked as a traitor grows, threatening to bring both kingdoms down.
A lush, seductive novel of the legendary beauty whose face launched a thousand ships. Daughter of a god, wife of a king, prize of antiquity's bloodiest war, Helen of Troy has inspired artists for millennia.
Now, Margaret George, the highly acclaimed bestselling historical novelist, has turned her intelligent, perceptive eye to the myth that is Helen of Troy. Margaret George breathes new life into the great Homeric tale by having Helen narrate her own story. Through her eyes and in her voice, we experience the young Helen's discovery of her divine origin and her terrifying beauty.
While hardly more than a girl, Helen married the remote Spartan king Menelaus and bore him a daughter. By the age of twenty, the world's most beautiful woman was resigned to a passionless marriage until she encountered the handsome Trojan prince Paris. And once the lovers flee to Troy, war, murder, and tragedy become inevitable.
In Helen of Troy, Margaret George has captured a timeless legend in a mesmerizing tale of a woman whose life was destined to create strife and destroy civilizations.