Book
The Firebrand
First published 1987
Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hecuba, grows up in Troy with visions that reveal the destruction approaching her family and city. Trained between the worship of the Goddess and the temple of Apollo, she resists the roles expected of a royal daughter while Paris’s return with Helen gives Agamemnon the pretext for war.
Bradley retells the Trojan War from Cassandra’s perspective, following the siege through the experiences of Trojan women, priestesses and captives rather than treating them as prizes in a heroic contest. Prophecy, sexual violence, religious conflict and the fall of Troy reshape the familiar epic into a story about whose testimony is believed and whose suffering is remembered.
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