The Weaver's Stratagem

Originally by Homer

Reimagined from the vantage point of Penelope

"He sailed the seas. She held the kingdom."

For twenty years, Odysseus adventures across the Mediterranean. For twenty years, Penelope holds Ithaca together — fending off 108 suitors, protecting her son, managing a kingdom, and weaving and unweaving a shroud in the most brilliant act of strategic deception in ancient literature.

Pages

380

Print Price

$24.99

Kindle Price

$9.99

Genre

Epic Literary Fiction

Why This Vantage Point

Margaret Atwood's 'The Penelopiad' proved this concept but was a slim novella. The market is ready for a full-length, epic treatment. Penelope's story resonates powerfully with modern themes of women's invisible labor.

Read an Excerpt

The Original

"Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who travelled far and wide."

— Homer, The Odyssey

The Reimagined — Penelope's Voice

Tell me, O muse, of the woman who stayed. Who held a kingdom together with thread and cunning while her husband chased glory across the wine-dark sea. They sing of his cleverness — the wooden horse, the blinded Cyclops, the sirens' song. They do not sing of mine. For three years I wove my father-in-law's shroud by day and unraveled it by night, and not one of those 108 men — warriors, kings, princes — suspected a thing. Odysseus tricked a Cyclops. I tricked an army. But his trick gets an epic, and mine gets a footnote.

Ready to hear the other side?

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