Wolfwinter

Having rated the previous books by this author at 2 or 3 stars I turned to this last one in my collection not expecting much, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that it is much better. Set in the time of classical Greece, but with mythological beings and gods a reality, as is a lot of the author's fiction, it tells the story of Erinna, a friend of the famous Sappho of Lesbos. Erinna is flat chested and has no illusions about her attractiveness, but one night when she attends a festival where it is usual for people to pair off, she meets a satyr Sappho had previously told her about, and finds a brief love for one night. Very soon after, she is married off to a cousin of her father, and has to move far from her island home, to a place show more where women have far more restricted lives. When her rather snooty and luxury loving husband discovers she is pregnant, he warns her that if the child is either an ugly boy or a girl - unless showing signs of being attractive when grown, and marriageable - it will be exposed outside the city.

When Erinna's boy is born he is almost perfect but has two little horns on his head, which her husband unfortunately discovers under his curls, and Erinna is tricked into handing the baby over to a slave. Almost too late she discovers he has been left outside the city where some large white wolves come to devour the abandoned babies. She has to fight one of them to rescue him, and he suffers an ankle wound. She flees, trying to take him to the forest where other fauns and satyrs are said to live, but with no food and a journey of days, collapses along the way. A man called Tares, a trader with a mule-drawn wagon, finds her and helps her, but when they reach the forest the baby is taken by a young faun who wants to raise him as a younger brother. The story of how Erinna is reunited with her son and finds fulfilment with the forest folk, with the twist of who are the goodies and villains, then ensues.

I found this story much better than previous ones by the author. It is told from the point of view of an unassuming young woman who has been raised more like a boy, her mother having died some years before, and who therefore can run, use a bow and generally rough it in the woods. Despite her initial lack of confidence with men - she makes it clear that she isn't attracted to same-sex partners unlike Sappho - she is a late bloomer and eventually becomes rather a magnet for various male characters.

Unlike some of the author's fiction, the sexual elements are an integral part of the story, companionship and friendship are just as important, and the characters are more fully developed than in other of his novels. There are some touching scenes which derive from the comparatively short lives of the fauns. As a side note, I found it quite amusing that, despite Erinna's references in the novel to being quite flat chested, the cover, although quite well painted, shows her as very well endowed in that department.

All in all, I enjoyed this book, and unlike the rest of his novels it is a keeper, so I am pleased to award it a full five stars. show less