Emperor Justinian's former Lord Chamberlain, John, gets a letter from his longtime comrade, Felix, and, placing loyalty to a friend above his own safety, risks defying imperial edict by leaving his exile in Greece for Rome where Felix is in some kind of trouble. For years a Captain of the Excubitors at the court in Constantinople, Felix has achieved his ambition to become a General when Justinian sends him to serve under General Diogenes in fighting...

"An urgent, exciting, fiercely intelligent debut novel that goes deep inside the daily lives of two women-one in Rome, the other in North Carolina-to tell a story about the powerful interconnections, both personal and political, unseen and inexorable, that exist beneath the surface of our troubled world. For years, Amira-a recent convert to Islam living in Rome-has gone to work, said her prayers, and struggled to piece together her husband's redacted...

"A semiautobiographical coming-of-age story, framed by the harrowing 1975 Circeo massacre"-- Three well-off young men-former students at Rome's prestigious all-boys Catholic high school San Leone Magno-brutally tortured, raped, and murdered two young women in 1975. The event, which came to be known as the Circeo massacre, shocked and captivated the country, exposing the violence and dark underbelly of the upper middle class at a moment when the traditional...