The Palace of Eros

WINNER OF THE 2024 GOLDEN POPPY OCTAVIA E. BUTLER AWARD

'A brilliant and luminous writer’ Madeline Miller, author of The Song of Achilles and Circe

‘Riveting, sublime, magical, and wildly subversive’ Cristina García, author of Dreaming in Cuban

'A natural storyteller' Washington Post

Beautiful, headstrong Psyche has captured the eye of every suitor – but also the jealous gaze of Aphrodite. When she is tied to a rock to be sacrificed to a ‘monstrous husband’, no monster arrives: instead, she is spirited away by Aphrodite’s daughter Eros.

Eros, goddess of desire, can change gender at will. In her hidden palace, she visits Psyche under a cloak of darkness, unable to reveal her face. As they discover new pleasures together, Psyche is tempted to break her vow not to look…

Gloriously anarchic and seductive, Caro De Robertis’ gender-fluid retelling of this classic myth is a masterpiece.