68. The Lost Sisterhood - Anne Fortier

2014, Ballantine books

585 pgs.

Adult CRF/HistFict/Mystery

Finished 11/2/2014

Goodreads rating: 3.80

My rating:  (5) Awesome 

TPPL

Setting: Contemporary Oxford University, Algeria, Turkey, Germany, and Finland, Ancient Algeria, Turkey, Troy

1st sentence/s: "In her own obscure fashion, my grandmother did what she could to arm me for the carnage of life.  Stamping hooves, rushing chariots, rapacious males . . . thanks to Granny, I had it more or less cased by the age of then."

My comments:  For me, this was in incredible piece of storytelling.   Yes, it was a little long, especially through the middle, but the first third and the last third made up for the middle third.  Told in alternating voices in two very different time periods - Myrina of the Amazons and Diana of contemporary scholarship - exploring the world of 3,000 years ago and today; it included strong females, a great grandmother-granddaughter relationship, a bit of sexual tension, and loads of mystery.  I've never been an Odyssey fan, and I still loved the story. The ending went in a direction and to a locale that I never expected.  This was a great read for me.  It even tapped into my Nordic genes!

Goodreads book summary: The Lost Sisterhood tells the story of Diana, a young and aspiring--but somewhat aimless--professor at Oxford. Her fascination with the history of the Amazons, the legendary warrior women of ancient Greece, is deeply connected with her own family's history; her grandmother in particular. When Diana is invited to consult on an archeological excavation, she quickly realizes that here, finally, may be the proof that the Amazons were real.
          The Amazons' "true" story--and Diana's history--is threaded along with this modern day hunt. This historical back-story focuses on a group of women, and more specifically on two sisters, whose fight to survive takes us through ancient Athens and to Troy, where the novel reinvents our perspective on the famous Trojan War.
          The Lost Sisterhood features another group of iconic, legendary characters, another grand adventure--you'll see in these pages that Fortier understands the kind of audience she has built with Juliet, but also she's delivering a fresh new story to keep that audience coming back for more.