About the book

Author: Le Guin, Ursula K.

Title: Lavinia

Publication: Orlando : Harcourt, 2008. ISBN 9781456106621.

DAISY audio format narrated by Alyssa Bresnahan. CELA library call number DA47766. 293 pages in the paperback edition, 11 hrs., 39 min. as a recorded book.

About the story

Ursula K. Le Guin has been one of my favourite authors ever since I encountered her Earthsea books as a young girl. They were among the books I could not wait to read to my daughter when she was younger, and they hold a special place in my heart. Visit her website at www.ursulakleguin.com.

Lavinia is based on Virgil’s Aeneid, an epic Latin poem written in the last years before the common era (29 to 19 BCE), which tells the story of Aeneas, a displaced Trojan warrior who eventually became the patriarch of the Romans. The modern dates for the Trojan war seem to be 1260 to 1180 BC (according to Wikipedia, at least).

As Lavinia tells us her story, she moves around in time and space, telling her own story from different perspectives. She can do this, she tells us, because her poet (never named) sketched her with so few details she is not tied to time, and must wander where others have found rest.

Lavinia is the daughter of King Latinus, helping him with his religious duties and speaking to the spirits of her ancestors in the ancient grove. It is there she meets her poet, who will live nearly a thousand years after her, and who tells her much of what is to come.

But the heart of this excellent book is the story of a woman, who grows from young girl to old woman, who knows love and sorrow, joy and loss. It is poignant and lyrical, developing the female in what has always been a man’s story: a truly great read.

The narrator, Alyssa Bresnahan, has a good sense of the rhythm that is so integral to Le Guin’s work, and her narration is lovely to listen to. I didn’t want it to end but, of course, end it must.

Recommended?

Highly recommended!