Marina Warner’s imaginary memoir of an Italian family, which in turn explores the passions and prejudices of the narrator’s imagination.
Marina Warner interweaves myth and legend, history and politics, to create a kaleidoscopic fable about exile and loss.
When a mummy in the Museum of Albion is unpacked, it is found to contain a bundle of curious documents that tell of the wanderings of an unknown woman - Leto. In a far-off era, Leto gives birth to twins, shelters with wolves, survives in a desert stronghold, stows away on a ship and works as a maid in a war-torn city. Here, she loses her son but saves her daughter. As the novel sweeps through time to the present day, Leto reappears in different guises. Finally, she begins to search for her son…
Marina Warner
About the Author
Marina Warner is a pioneer in the academic study of myth, but in 1985 she was prominent for her provocative books reappraising the likes of the Virgin Mary and Joan of Arc as feminist figures.Other nominated books by Marina Warner