Funeral Games

“Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.”—Hilary Mantel By the end of his reign, Alexander the Great had seized control of an empire that extended from the Adriatic Sea to the Indus River. When he died in 323 BC, a fervent scramble for power ensued. Funeral Games is Mary Renault’s remarkable novel of this turmoil and the gradual erosion of the Greek empire. The power players include Ptolemy, two father-son teams, and a cadre of influential women—not least of whom is Eurydike, whose plan is to marry Alexander’s disabled brother, Arridaios. Brimming with outsize personalities, brazen plots, and a sweeping sense of history, Funeral Games brings to vivid life the world of Alexander the Great, and the seismic tumult in the wake of his death. Funeral Games is the final volume of the Novels of Alexander the Great trilogy, which begins with The Persian Boy andFire from Heaven. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author.