Review: The Coin Of Carthage by Bryher

My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I'd never come across this author before and was intrigued by the mysterious name - 'Bryher' is in fact one of the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast, and was adopted as a nom-de-plume by Annie Winifred Ellerman, an amazing woman by all accounts who as well as writing fifteen novels and several non-fiction books, lived an unconventional life in Paris, London and Switzerland, moved in literary circles that included Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein, set up a 'receiving station' for refugees escaping Nazi persecution during WWII, and entered two 'marriages of convenience' with literary men whilst maintaining a lesbian relationship with poet Hilda Doolittle until her partner's death in 1961. 'Bryher' herself continued to live and write until 1983, and 'Coin Of Carthage', published in 1963, is set during the Second Punic War.
Two Greek traders, Zonas and Dasius, thrown reluctantly together on a journey, have a brief chance encounter with the great Carthaginian leader Hannibal that is to change both their lives. Whilst the conflict between Rome and Carthage rages in the background, we follow the fortunes of each as they separate, one to travel to Carthage, the other to settle on the outskirts of Rome. When Zonas saves the life of a young Roman officer, Karos, he is rewarded with the stewardship of his mother's farm; and while Karos seeks in vain high and low for his beloved companion, Orbius, captured by the Carthaginians and carried off to their city as a prisoner, it is Dasius who eventually find the changed and embittered young Roman years later ...
This is a book about relationships, some of them with homoerotic overtones (Karus and Orbius, Dasius and the Mago, the ship's captain who offers him shelter in Carthage), and about the everyday lives of ordinary people on the periphery of great historical events. The most detailed descriptions are not of armies, cities or warfare, but of humble inns serving wine, fish, figs; sunlit courtyards with cool, stone fountains; bustling markets with loaves, acorns, trinkets, jars of honey spread out on brightly dyed cloths; seaside quays with the tang of salt on the air; the soft, velvety muzzle of a donkey. The attention to detail is both loving and vivid, and although I was disappointed not to 'see' more of the great temples of Carthage, or indeed of Hannibal himself, I found this gentle, understated depiction of life in Rome and Carthage utterly absorbing.
View all my reviews
Published on May 14, 2020 07:24
No comments have been added yet.