The Sisygambis Letters

This historical novel tells the inside story of the relations between Alexander the Great and the women who played an important role in his life. The events are explained through a correspondence maintained by two queens, the 'adoptive mothers' of Alexander: Ada of Karia, and Sisygambis of Persia.The discovery and translation of this correspondence between two queens of 2,300 years ago, revealing both the state secrets and the personal secrets of Alexander's life and times, is an...
More Description

This historical novel tells the inside story of the relations between Alexander the Great and the women who played an important role in his life. The events are explained through a correspondence maintained by two queens, the 'adoptive mothers' of Alexander: Ada of Karia, and Sisygambis of Persia.The discovery and translation of this correspondence between two queens of 2,300 years ago, revealing both the state secrets and the personal secrets of Alexander's life and times, is an adventure by itself. The discovery is made by the young professor Barsine who, inadvertedly, finds herself in the middle of a tug of war between American and Russian secret services of the 21st century.In this novel Alexander the Great and the persons around him -especially, the women- are accurately portrayed with all the details provided by the classical historians. The resulting image, however, is different. It reveals that he was not only a military genius, but also an intelligent social innovator.Alexander is known worldwide as a glittering success story in a men's world. This book shifts the viewpoint to his relation with women. His real mother, his two adoptive mothers, his full sister, and the women he loved besides the men he loved.True, the significance of Alexander's fascinating relationship with the Persian queen-mother Sisygambis, that inspired this book, was swept off the pages of history. We do not know what she gave him, besides her love. But no doubt she was the key source from which he learned so much about the Persian empire, in such an awesomely short time.Evidently, the letters from and to Sisygambis that the reader finds here are fiction. Their subject matter, however, are either historical events or conjectures based on solid fact.Alexander the Great is a 'hero'. But he was a historical hero, capable of passing on his legacy. It was disfigured by his would-be successors, and overshadowed by a different empire; but it can still be found. It tells us that we can learn to discover, like him, that the difference between men and women, or between West and East, does not have to impoverish our world.Alexander was unique. Unhappily for us who live in a world that should have been his work but isn't, he continues to be unique. We can only wish that our powers that be could learn from his capacity for learning. This book explains about that brilliant Alexander who was a gift from heaven.