The Heroines

Phaedra, a princess of Crete and daughter of King Minos, is sent across the sea to marry the celebrated hero Theseus and become queen of Athens. But the palace she arrives at is cold and unwelcoming, its court quick to judge a foreign bride, and Phaedra soon finds herself dangerously alone among people who see her as an outsider.

When a violation shatters what little safety she has, Phaedra's accusation against her stepson, Hippolytus, ignites the most sensational trial the ancient world has known, testing Athens's new courts and the willingness of powerful men to believe a woman. Structured like a Greek tragedy, with a watching chorus, Laura Shepperson's Sunday Times bestselling debut, published in the United States as "Phaedra", reclaims a story long used to cast women as scheming and deceitful, and gives its heroine back her voice.