The Sweet Girl

Praise

“An entertaining work, full of raw gusto. . . . Lyon has vividly brought Pythias’s fourth-century BC world to life” —Boston Globe

“Brilliantly imagined. . . . The storytelling is a triumph. Lyon has delivered a beautifully made and otherworldly novel, revealing a land of kings, gods, and demons that somehow seems as familiar as our own.” —Alan Cheuse, NPR/All Things Considered

“With intoxicatingly earthy descriptions, Lyon conjures a world in thrall to the senses.” —Elle

“Exceptional. . . . Lyon takes readers on a journey they won’t soon forget; it includes love, lust, Greek gods and goddesses, mythology, and more. . . . Spectacular.” —Vancouver Sun

“As Lyon portrays her, Pythias is not the ‘sweet girl’ her father had called her, but resilient and resourceful—a survivor.” —Boston Globe

 “A remarkable novel, not just a pleasure to read but also a book that I expect to reread several times. . . . While Woolf’s classic book A Room of One’s Own remains a brilliant polemic, it is a mere sketch compared to the thickly and quirkily imagined world of ancient Greek women that Lyon gives us in her novel.” —National Post (Canada)

“Potently elegiac . . . Lyon shows with chilling precision just how quickly a life can unravel . . . She has a knack for intrigue, the sizzle behind seemingly ordinary remarks, and she uses this to great effect.” —The Guardian (UK)
 
“Exhilaratingly original. . . . This novel thrills in its immediacy and the family at its heart, in their love for each other, is instantly, captivatingly real.” —Daily Mail (UK)
“A provocative tale that undoes any romantic delusions a reader might hold about ancient Greek society and thought.” —Kirkus Reviews

“Lyon does a remarkable job of making Pythias, her ancient world, and her eternal problems raw and compelling.” —Publishers Weekly