Really, hands-down some of the best historical fiction ever written sprang from the pen of Mary Renault. Excellent characters, interesting plots, brilliant writing and scholarly period accuracy are all right there...and you get free lessons in the lives and histories of the ancient Greeks as well. HIGHLY recommended. If you're looking for moving, humorous, fascinating fiction that very convincingly takes you out of your time into another, this is the mother lode. I'd have to say The Praise Singer is perhaps my favorite, with Renault's protagonist really giving a wonderful insight of what it's like to be a musician and songwriter (go figure), but The Mask Of Apollo does much the same with its note-perfect reading of the character of an actor. And The Persian Boy is an amazing book too, telling the story of Alexander The Great from the viewpoint of his slave and lover. Really hard to miss with this writer...give 'em a shot.
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