Set in 622 A.D. during the decades-long war between the Persian and Eastern Roman empires, The Gardens of Byzantium offers a unique backdrop for a tragic love story…
“An evocative, rich portrait of a tumultuous time, in which the main characters must ascertain which of them is indeed the captive of the other; humans reduced to themselves through the vicissitudes of history, and the limitations of landscape, class, and war. Hughes possesses a sense of the past that enables us to see and sometimes even to hear his various subjects, conveying a compelling sense of mystery and inevitability.”
–Susanna Moore, author of In the Cut, The Whiteness of Bones, and The Lost Wife