Books of Wonder

Amber and Clay

Amber and Clay - Main image
$11.5 $22.99 In stock

Category: Signed Books

Welcome to ancient Greece as only genius storyteller Laura Amy Schlitz can conjure it. In a warlike land of wind and sunlight, “ringed by a restless sea,” live Rhaskos and Melisto, spiritual twins with little in common beyond the violent and mysterious forces that dictate their lives. A Thracian slave in a Greek household, Rhaskos is as common as clay, a stable boy worth less than a donkey, much less a horse. Wrenched from his mother at a tender age, he nurtures in secret, aided by Socrates, his passions for art and philosophy. Melisto is a spoiled aristocrat, a girl as precious as amber but willful and wild. She’ll marry and be tamed—the curse of all highborn girls—but risk her life for a season first to serve Artemis, goddess of the hunt.

Bound by destiny, Melisto and Rhaskos—Amber and Clay—never meet in the flesh. By the time they do, one of them is a ghost. But the thin line between life and death is just one boundary their unlikely friendship crosses. It takes an army of snarky gods and fearsome goddesses, slaves and masters, mothers and philosophers to help shape their story into a gorgeously distilled, symphonic tour de force.

Blending verse, prose, and illustrated archaeological “artifacts,” this is a tale that vividly transcends time, an indelible reminder of the power of language to illuminate the over- and underworlds of human history.

Customer Reviews (4.0 / 5 · 2 reviews)

Matthew V. ★★★★★

I picked this up for my daughter's mythology unit and ended up reading the whole thing myself in two sittings. Melisto's chapters hit hardest, but the way the two voices braid together across the verse and prose is what stuck with me. Arrived signed and in perfect shape, which made it a keeper rathe

Brian ★★★☆☆

The verse sections told through Rhaskos and Melisto are beautiful, and the ancient Greek setting really comes alive. But the pacing drags in the middle and I found myself skimming whole chapters. It's a decent read, just not the gripping story I was hoping for.