An enthralling, groundbreaking reimagining of an iconic queen, from the #1 Sunday Times bestselling author


'Enchanting, smart, and subversive – this is El-Arifi’s masterpiece' R. F. Kuang




'Lush world-building and lyrical prose burn brightly on every page' JENNIFER SAINT




'An extraordinary achievement’ SAMANTHA SHANNON




YOU KNOW MY NAME.




BUT YOU DO NOT KNOW ME.



Your historians call me seductress, but I was ever in love's thrall.


Your playwrights speak of witchcraft, but my talents came from the gods themselves.


Your poets sing of my bloodlust, but I was always protecting my children.


How wilfully they refuse to concede that a woman could be powerful, strategic, divinely blessed to rule.


Death will silence me no longer.


This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.



From one of the most remarkable and acclaimed storytellers of her generation, the #1 bestselling author of FAEBOUND and THE FINAL STRIFE, this epic and groundbreaking new novel shows us Cleopatra on her own terms.