This book is about the life of Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus and Queen Amala. Lavinia has reached the age where she should be married and there are quite a few suitors for her. Latinus asks her to make her choice and she’s about to choose the man her mother thinks she should marry when she asks her father to consult the oracle. The oracle decrees that Lavinia should marry Aeneas – a foreigner from Troy.
Amala refuses to believe that this was the advise from the oracle, and she kidnaps her daughter to marry her off to Turnus, Amala’s choice, anyway. However, Lavinia escapes back to Latium and tells her father what her mother has done.
Meanwhile Turnus turns up demanding Lavinia’s hand in marriage. He challenges Aeneas to a duel after fighting the Trojans for a few days. Aeneas wins the duel and marries Lavinia. The newlyweds move to a new city Aeneas has name Lavinium. And soon Lavinia becomes pregnant and has a son, Silvius.
Just when Lavinia finds out she’s pregnant again, Aeneas dies in battle. Her stepson, Ascanius, becomes king and moves his capital to Alba Longa. Sadly Lavinia miscarries pretty soon after Aeneas’ death.
When Ascanius marries, he asks Lavinia to return to Lavinium and to leave Silvius behind so he can teach him. Lavinia leaves Alba Longa, but not alone – she brings Silvius with her. Ascanius’ men follow her to Lavinium and while they are in town, Lavinia and Silvius hide in the forest.
This book doesn’t have any chapters and in at the start of the book Le Guin jumps from one subject to the next which didn’t make sense to me – it just felt like Lavinia was waffling a lot. About half way in, it started to become interesting. All in all it was an okay book.
Last sentence: Only sometimes my soul wakes as a woman again, and then when I listen I can hear silence, and in the silence his voice.
Read for the PopSugar Reading Challenge 2025
Prompt 2: A book you want to read based on the last sentence
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
