Mary Renault: 16 books

New York Times bestseller: A “highly superior historical novel” about the bond that grows between two men in ancient Athens (Saturday Review). Alexias is a young aristocrat living during the end of Athens’s Golden Age. Prized for his beauty and athletic prowess, Alexias studies under...

An “intriguing and invaluable” biography of Alexander the Great by the novelist whose fiction redefined Ancient Greece (The New York Times). Acclaimed writer Mary Renault is widely known for her provocative historical novels of Alexander the Great and his lovers. But she also authored this...

New York Times Bestseller and Man Booker Prize Finalist: A novel of ancient Greece by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” Alexander the Great stands alone as a leader and strategist, and Fire from Heaven is Mary Renault’s unsurpassed dramatization of the formative years...

The conclusion to the New York Times–bestselling trilogy of ancient Greece by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” 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,...

New York Times Bestseller: This retelling of the Greek myth of Theseus, king of Athens, is “one of the truly fine historical novels of modern times” (The New York Times). In myth, Theseus was the slayer of the child-devouring Minotaur in Crete. What the founder-hero might have been in real...

The New York Times–bestselling portrayal of the life of ancient Greece’s lyric poet. “[Renault's] historical novels . . . are among the finest ever written” (The Washington Post Book World). Simonides of Keos lived during the fifth and sixth centuries BC, a fertile period for the arts,...

A New York Times–bestselling trilogy about the ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon and its leader from an author hailed by Hilary Mantel as “a shining light.” *Fire from Heaven *is a gripping account of the formative years of Alexander’s life. The story tells of his complex relationship...

A New York Times–bestselling novel of the ancient king of Macedon and his lover by the author Hilary Mantel calls “a shining light.” The Persian Boy centers on the most tempestuous years of Alexander the Great’s life, as seen through the eyes of his lover and most faithful attendant,...

Mary Renault’s inventive debut novel: A love-triangle drama set against the backdrop of hospital life Working in a hospital in 1930s Britain, two colleagues fall into an emotionally charged relationship. Vivian and Mic work demanding jobs and must endure long gaps between their secret meetings....

This novel of ancient Greece, featuring Plato and a young actor, by the bestselling author of the Novels of Alexander the Great, is “a shining light” (Hilary Mantel, Man Booker Award–winning author of Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies). In the fourth century BC, Nikeratos is an actor,...

The New York Times–bestselling author of The King Must Die continues the story of the mythical Greek hero, Theseus, the founder of Athens. In The Bull from the Sea, the story of Theseus resumes with the hero’s return from Knossos. In the wake of his father’s suicide, Athens is now Theseus’s...

A WWII soldier embarks on affairs with two very different men in a landmark novel that “transcends categorizations” (The Telegraph).   After being wounded at Dunkirk in World War II, Laurie Odell is sent back home to a rural British hospital. Standing out among the orderlies is Andrew,...

Winner of an MGM prize: A doctor finds love with a talented, handsome younger man—who happens to be her patient Hilary Mansell is a talented young doctor, but she is unlucky in love and still recovering from losing out on a keenly sought appointment, one that was awarded to none other than...

A wry romp through 1930s mores, social and sexual Progressive for its time as well as ours,* The Friendly Young Ladies* is a deftly witty comedy set in England between the wars. At eighteen, Elsie has had enough of life at her bickering parents’ Cornwall home. She decides to join up with...