WINNER OF THE EDMUND WHITE DEBUT FICTION AWARD

FINALIST FOR THE LAMBDA LITERARY ASSOCIATION'S LESBIAN DEBUT FICTION AWARD

A fiercely feminist retelling of a little-known Greek myth: the ultimate story of sacrifice and forbidden desire

In Greek myth, Alcestis is known as the ideal wife; she loved her husband so much that she died and went to the underworld in his place. But who was Alcestis before she was married? Other than her love for Admetus, what circumstances led her to make this ultimate sacrifice? And what happened to her in the three days she spent in the underworld?

Katharine Beutner’s lush, emotionally devastating debut explores the magical reality of ancient Greece, where gods attend weddings and the underworld is just a river away. As Alcestis goes from sheltered princess to wise savior, she redefines love and discovers her own power—a poignant heroine’s journey that resonates more than ever today. Giving an achingly beautiful voice to the most misunderstood wives of Greek mythology, Alcestis reveals the underworld as you’ve never seen it before.

“Beutner helps us re-see the familiar … Alcestis is nobody’s celebratory gayed-up Greek myth (for that, try Ovid). Instead, Beutner’s retelling is resolutely queer: strange, beautiful, ambivalent, sexually fluid, full of human complexity and godly simplicity.”—Andrea Lawlor, Lambda Literary