Hachette India

Persian Boy

Seán Hewitt

Tom Holland

Seán Hewitt

'One of the greatest historical novels ever written'
SARAH WATERS

'I love to find queer representation in historical fiction. . . Renault's eye for intimacy is amazing'
DOUGLAS STUART

'Fierce, complex and eloquent'
MADELINE MILLER

'Mary Renault is a shining light'
HILARY MANTEL

***

A groundbreaking queer classic and powerful reimagining of the last years of Alexander the Great, told through the eyes of his lover.

I thought, There goes my lord, whom I was born to follow. I have found a king.
And, I said to myself, looking after him as he walked away, I will have him, if I die for it.

Bagoas, abducted as a boy and sold as a eunuch, has been transported to the heart of the Persian court as courtesan to King Darius. But when the Macedon army conquers his homeland, Bagoas finds freedom at the hands of their golden young commander, whose name is already becoming a legend: Alexander.

Their encounter sparks a passionate devotion that shapes the Persian boy's future - and deepens into a relationship that will sustain them both through assassination plots, political intrigue and the threat of Alexander's own restless ambition. This is a spellbinding tale of power, loyalty and loss - a vision of history transfigured by love.

'Nowhere else in fiction have Alexander's beauty and charisma blazed with such potency'
TOM HOLLAND

'Passionate and captivating'
SEÃN HEWITT

'All my sense of the ancient world - its value, its style, the scent of its wars and passions - comes from Mary Renault'
EMMA DONOGHUE

'The Alexander Trilogy stands as one of the most important works of fiction in the 20th century'
ANTONIA SENIOR, THE TIMES

Tom Holland

Tom Holland is an award-winning historian, author and broadcaster. His bestselling books include Rubicon: The Triumph and the Tragedy of the Roman Republic, which won the Hessell-Tiltman Prize for History and was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize; Persian Fire, which won the Anglo-Hellenic League's Runciman Award; Millennium: The End of the World and the Forging of Christendom; In the Shadow of the Sword: The Battle for Global Empire and the End of the Ancient World; Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of Caesar; and Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind. Holland has adapted Homer, Herodotus, Thucydides and Virgil for the BBC. His translation of Herodotus was published in 2013 by Penguin Classics and followed in 2016 by a history of Æthelstan published under the Penguin Monarchs series, and in 2019 Æthelflæd England's Forgotten Founder as a Ladybird Expert Book. In 2007, he was the winner of the Classical Association prize, awarded to 'the individual who has done most to promote the study of the language, literature and civilisation of Ancient Greece and Rome'. Holland hosts (with Dominic Sandbrook) the no.1 podcast The Rest is History. He has written and presented a number of TV documentaries for the BBC and Channel 4, on subjects ranging from religion to dinosaurs. He served two years as the Chair of the Society of Authors; as Chair of the PLR Advisory Committee and was on the committee of the Classical Association. @holland_tom