Counting the Stars

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Prize winning author Helen Dunmore explores the heat and desire of ancient Rome through the eyes of the real historical figures: erotic poet Catullus and his lover Clodia (known as Lesbia in his poetry) in her Roman novel "Counting the Stars". In the sticky summer heat unruly desires stir the blood...For Catullus, the brilliantly witty and outrageous young poet, and Clodia, his older, married lover, a borrowed villain Rome is a secret, illicit meeting-place. When they are apart, Catullus burns with desire for 'his girl', while Clodia goes her own way among his rivals. Other passions simmer in the heat: the streets threaten to erupt in political violence, hearts sour and contemplate murder, and love and hate are dangerously entwined. Catullus' jealousy grows as toxic as hellebore or hemlock. Poisoning is a Roman art, and there is poison everywhere..."An assured, addictive and captivating tale of forbidden love. Dunmore possesses a gift for turning every genre she touches into gold". ("Daily Telegraph"). "Dunmore brings to life the people, the smells and the streets of a city where greed is good and lust for sex as well as power is what drives men and women on...richly evocative, sparkling". ("Tribune"). "Marvellous, powerful, convincing, captivating, compelling, mesmerizing, seductive, inventive...Dunmore at her most innovative and daring". ("Time Out"). Novelist and poet Helen Dunmore has achieved great critical acclaim since publishing her first adult novel, the McKitterick Prize winning, "Zennor in Darkness". Her novels, "Your Blue-Eyed Boy", "With Your Crooked Heart", "Burning Bright", "The Siege" (Shortlisted for the 2001 Whitbread Novel of the Year Award and for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002), "The Betrayal", "House of Orphans", "Mourning Ruby", "A Spell of Winter", and "Talking to the Dead", and her collection of short stories "Love ofFat Men" are all published by Penguin. Helen also writes for children, her titles include "The Deep" and "Ingo".