Orphia and Eurydicius

'Poetic and evocative ... this story will thrill readers' - PIP WILLIAMS

'Vivid, consuming, potent, and poetic ... A moving, magical ode to the power of using our voices' - HOLLY RINGLAND

'Like all enchanted books, the story of Elyse Johns' Orphia and Eurydicius is vivid, consuming, potent, and poetic. This gender-flipping, feminist retelling is not just a love story for the ages, but a moving, magical ode to the power of using our voices, and of being who we are in the world.' - HOLLY RINGLAND, author of The Seven Skins of Esther Wilding

'As I read, I imagined the muses beside Elyse John, focusing her mind and guiding her hand. The writing is poetic and evocative, and the story will thrill readers who have long suspected something is missing from the classics of Greek myth.' - PIP WILLIAMS, author of The Bookbinder of Jericho

'This book hooked me from its opening lines ... Music and poetry, art and magic are woven together in this dazzling fable which ultimately asks: how far are we willing to go for the ones we love? Elyse John has taken one of the most beautiful and tragic love stories ever told and infused it with a modern sensibility. Readers will swoon.' - LAUREN CHATER, author of The Winter Dress

'A timeless story told in rich, poetic language ... a book for lovers of myth, passion and transporting historical fiction. John brilliantly reimagines the past while crafting a moving tale of love that challenges outdated gender roles, and of grief drawn from the depths of experience. The mesmerising landscapes, the journeys of sea and fire, encircle this very human story in the evocative realm of legend.' - KATHERINE BRABON, author of The Shut Ins

'Highly polished and luminous ... A wonderfully ambitious, richly imagined tale of star-crossed lovers. Brimming with passion, wit and poetry Orphia and Eurydicius is a story of, and for, the ages. One that not only stands as a paeon to love, courage and acceptance but to every woman's desire, and right, to be heard. A triumph.' - LYN HUGHES, author of Mr Carver's Whale

'A gorgeous, sweeping tale that both evokes the feeling of classic mythology and intelligent and modern insight, this is a story of the boundaries we put on love and grief - I dare you to be unmoved by it.' - SAM HAWKE, author of City of Lies

'A beautiful, poetic ode to Greek myth, love, and the sheer power of women's art and women's voices.' - TASHA SURI, author of the Burning Kingdoms series

'Spins a bewitching tale of courage, love, and defiance, giving voice and agency to the women in Greek tales who are so often defined by the men they are associated with. Orphia's poetry may bring the gods to tears; John's words have the same effect on us mere mortals. Tragic and triumphant, a must-read!' - ANDREA STEWART, author of The Bone Shard Daughter

'A delectable concoction at once ancient and modern, comfortingly familiar and yet very much her own ... A thrilling tale of epic love and epic ambition spun with a Homeric sense of adventure and storytelling flair. It's also a hymn to the pleasures of sensuality, nature and creativity, and to the courage of being yourself rather than the person others want you to be.' - LEE KOFMAN, author of The Writer Laid Bare

'A powerful ode to female creativity and ambition, a poignant exploration of grief, and a testament to the power of art and love to transcend death. Lyrical, luminous, and brimming with passion.' - H.G. PARRY, author of The Magician's Daughter

'Elyse John has written that rare novel, one that has heart and wisdom, adventure and poetry, and all the while it pulses with a great political purpose. It's a marvel.' - NIGEL FEATHERSTONE, author of My Heart is a Little Wild Thing

'A fresh and enchanting retelling of the Orpheus myth, in which Ancient Greece's greatest poet becomes a bold, powerful woman, and her muse an artistic, gentle man. John astutely explores and tests the gendered stereotypes of classical myth and elevates women's voices and stories to craft a beautiful, beguiling modern myth about the value of creativity, the strength of non-conformity and the power of love.' - NIKKI MARMERY, author of Lilith

'An intoxicating story about a woman fighting to live a life of creativity and love, on her own terms. This is a powerful epic about the collective power of women set in the mythical past that feels incredibly relevant today. John's gilded romance about breaking boundaries to live and love is transportative.' - STEPH VIZARD, winner of the 2022 HarperCollins Banjo Prize for The Love Contract