Just Finished Reading: Alexander – Child of a Dream by Valerio Massimo Manfredi (FP: 1998)

Even before her son was born she knew that he would be something special and would be remembered for great deeds. She heard his name – Alexander – spoken on the wind and had dreamt of a giant snake entering her bed on the night he was conceived. So when he was born and began to grow up she wasn’t at all surprised that Prince Alexander’s tutors spoke of a boy with capabilities far beyond his years. Educated by the finest minds of the time – including personal tutelage by Aristotle himself – his father King Phillip of Macedon spared no expense. His son would be more Greek than the proud Athenians themselves and would grow up to be someone they above all others would both respect and fear. For Phillip had great plans for his favourite son. First they would unite the warring cities of Greece under a single ruler and then they would drive a sword, hilt deep, into their most hated enemy – Persia. But such an expedition would take years to come to fruition and there were many enemies to overcome, both outside and within the palace – not least of which was Phillip’s temper and Alexander’s single minded ambition to rule.

This was yet another of those books I picked up somewhere for a song and had been sitting on my shelves for years waiting to be read. I’d heard of the author and thought I’d give it a punt already having an interest in Ancient Greece and (arguably) the greatest military mind ever produced. At a fairly hefty 434 pages this proved to be an easy and highly entertaining read. The Ancient world is brought alive in all its familiarity and alien splendour. It was both a strange world, full of gods and demons, and one we would recognise with power struggles, questions of meaning and fate and the ever present desire to be recognised and remembered as something out of the ordinary. Full of frankly fascinating characters and equally fascinating historical events – some of which evoked memories of previous readings of the period – this is a great book that you can lose yourself in for minutes or hours at a time. Although I haven’t picked up the other two books in the series I’ll certainly be looking out for them in future. Definitely recommended for Ancient history buffs.  

Translated from the Italian by Iain Halliday

[2015 Reading Challenge: A book that was originally written in a different language– COMPLETE (27/50)]