Kate Hovey uses quotes from classic works about the Trojan War as epigraphs to individual poems in many voices that retell the story of Troy in an accessible, affecting, and engaging narrative. Hovey launches her verse with carefully selected passages from The Aenid by Virgil, The Illiad by Homer, Agamemnon by Aeschlyus, Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and other works. Her own poems use a variety of formal structures, but they never get in the way of her easy-to-follow narrative line. She projects multiple perspectives on the battle and ultimate defeat of Troy, stressing the poignancy, irony and tragedy of the story. (Ages 13–18)

"Tell us again of the wooden horse;

give us an ageless rhyme

of heroes and battles, of meddling gods,

and a city lost to time."

This invocation to the Muse begins Kate Hovey's exquisite rendition of the events leading up to and during the Trojan War -- the legendary ten-year battle between the House of Priam in Troy and the great heroes of Greece and its allies, in consequence of Paris, the prince of Troy, having carried off Helen, wife of the King of Sparta.

Through passionate verse and evocative images, we are transported to the battlefield to witness the war as it unfolds -- from the moment Paris is manipulated by the gods to fall in love with Helen to the final maneuver by the Greeks, who enter and vanquish the city of Troy by secreting themselves in a gigantic wooden horse.

In listening to the voices and stories of those ancient Greeks and Trojans who struggled, fought, lost, and won, readers everywhere will be deeply moved and will come to a profound appreciation of the delicate nature of humanity and the futility of war.