Alcestis

Alcestis is remembered as a wife willing to die so that her husband could live. This retelling looks beyond that single act to the woman whose choices made it possible, following her from a sheltered upbringing into marriage and the underworld. Among gods who intervene directly in human lives, love and obligation are difficult to separate from the power others hold. Her journey into death brings encounters that challenge the meaning of the sacrifice for which she will be known. Rather than accepting the familiar image of an ideal wife, the novel explores what Alcestis desires, what she has been denied, and what kind of self she might discover beyond those expectations.