Disclosure:   A while back, I won a copy of  “Cleopatra’s Daughter” by Michelle Moran — from a give-a-way hosted by Chris at Book-a-Rama.    My copy was personally autographed by the author, which was nice! 

I have previously read and enjoyed “Nefertiti”, also by Michelle Moran (my thoughts here).  Also, having read the history of  ”Cleopatra and Antony” by Diana Preston (review here), it shouldn’t be a surprise that I liked “Cleopatra’s Daughter”.

As I understand it, “Cleopatra’s Daughter” is geared towards Young Adults (YA) as well as adult readers.  It can be difficult sometimes to successfully pull this off, but I think Michelle Moran did a good job doing so. 

When Egypt is over taken by Octavian and his Roman army, both Cleopatra and Antony commit suicide, leaving their twin son and daughter to survive in the long term.  The ten-year-old twins, Cleopatra Selene and Alexander Helios, are captured and brought to Rome.  Known as Selene and Alexander, this book is a re-telling of their life stories in a historical fiction manner. 

Told through the point of view of Selene, this novel covers the next six years of Selene’s and Alexander’s lives; and includes many historical characters.   The twins stay with Octavia, Octavian’s sister, and becomes friends with characters such as Julia and Marcellus.  It’s complicated to explain who is who here.   Fortunately, the book has  a list of characters to refer to when I occasionally got confused at the beginning. 

Some issues are dealt with sensitively here — such as slavery in ancient Rome;  homosexuality is also  touched upon.  There is a scene in the book where one of Selene’s friends must give up her new-born daughter simply because it was a girl — underscoring the second-class status women had then (and still have in some parts of the world).

In real life, Selene eventually married Juba of Numidia, so Juba is a main character in this novel as well; as an important aide to Octavian.    I enjoyed reading how their friendship developed throughout this story.

I tried to find portraits of both Selene and Juba, but the only images I found of  Selene were on coins.  Here is a bust of Juba II of Numidia (later, King of Mauretania): 

In this novel, Selene has an interest in architecture and studies under Vitruvius, an engineer and architect.  I appreciate reading depictions that make me feel like I’m actually there, such as this one of the Sea Palace:

“It was magnificent.  Heavy wooden shelves from ceiling to floor were crammed with scrolls.  Seabirds had been carved into the wood of the ceiling and beautiful urns filled the niches.  Vitruvius explained how the shelves had been built, then took us through the triclinium and the guest chambers, pointing out small features like fluted columns and barrel-vaulted spaces painted in sea green and gold.  Every room we entered was richly furnished. ”

“Cleopatra’s Daughter” is very good historical fiction, with realistically depicted characters and a storyline that moves along well and seamlessly.  I enjoyed it, and now just need to read “The Heretic Queen” , the second of Michelle Moran’s novels.

Have you read anything of Michelle Moran’s, or any good historical ficiton lately?  How about anything regarding ancient Rome or Egypt?

And, finally, for fun, here is the book trailer for “Cleopatra’s Daughter”.  The you tube URL is here in case you cannot see the embedded video.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 2:29 PM and is filed under Young Adult, book review, historical fiction, multicultural. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.