https://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2022/10/2022138-cleopatras-heir-gillian-bradshaw.... ( )

Considerado por algunos la pieza clave de la posible unión entre Roma y Egipto, y despreciado por otros como el indigno fruto de la pasión amorosa de Julio César por Cleopatra, Cesarión es tal vez el personaje más enigmático de aquella fascinante época histórica. Supuestamente asesinado por orden de Octaviano, el hijo adoptivo y sucesor de César, que lo veía como una seria amenaza para sus sueños de expansión del Imperio, poco se sabe de la suerte que corrió el joven heredero de Cleopatra. Apoyándose en la hipótesis de un Cesarión que, tras sobrevivir al intento de magnicidio, se enfrenta al terrible dilema de cambiar de identidad y rehacer su vida o sucumbir ante lo inevitable, Gillian Bradshaw —autora del superventas El faro de Alejandría— narra la dramática situación de un joven obligado a renunciar a sus valores más preciados, el deber y el honor, para iniciar en el anonimato un recorrido por tierras de un Egipto que falsamente creía conocer y cuya maravillosa riqueza se despliega ahora ante sus ojos.

Grand fun - I couldn't put it down & stayed up to 2 AM to finish it. I don't read straight through a book very often, but this one had me glued to my seat.

Our hero is Cleopatra's son, trying to sort out what to do after his mother's downfall. He has to keep his identity a secret. I got to wondering if this story wasn't even intended as a kind of Gnostic allegory. Our hero is trying to figure out who is really is himself, apart from what others have made him out to be.

Yeah it could be a Jane Austen story too... happily married ever after, but the road to happiness has many twists and turns!

I'm a bit of a hat freak. Our hero gets a few nice Greek hats. I wonder what those looked like! Anyway, lots of nice descriptions of the local scenery, from caravanserai to imperial palaces. ( )

A historical novel about Caesarion, the son of Cleopatra and Julius Caesar, after the Battle of Actium. Well-written and plausible (although he was almost certainly executed by Octavian instead of being allowed to live). Recommended.

I'm sure like many others, I was fascinated with Cleopatra and ancient Egypt.

I had finished reading the book and read the author's comments in the end. I didn't appreciate the comments the author had made in regards to Cleopatra. Sure, Cleopatra was controversial and in the eyes of many, she might not have been the best ruler, but she certainly wasn't such an atrocious or completely destructive person as propaganda and her enemies paint her as. Honestly, if she was a man, would people be so harsh to criticise her and her ideas? We may never know, who she truly was but there was no need to treat her so harshly in the book, which you can catch glimpses of that throughout the book whenever Cleopatra was mentioned.

I had always wondered what happened to the children of Cleopatra. This book told of one possibility, had Caesarion managed to survive assassins and betrayals. OK, I'll buy that he may have been epileptic, although I think it was used way too many times in the book to make us sympathize with them more and maybe forgive him for certain actions. For a while, he acted like the spoiled and arrogant child king that he likely would have been. I did enjoy how he learned respect and humility while in the debt and care of Ani and his family.

The whole interview (or interrogation) Caesarion had with Octavian seemed to stretch the imagination a little too much, given everything Octavian did to ensure that people question Caesarion's paternity and no male heirs of his enemies remained unscathed. So to expect that he would simply agree to Caesarion signing his name away and letting him walk out into Egypt is totally unlikely and too far stretched for it to believable. After all, if Caesarion lived another day, he can easily raise up an army in his name and try to reclaim Egypt in the name of his ancestors .

Also, to just waltz right into Alexandria completely unnoticed during Roman occupation and with Caesarion's statues everywhere...well how come no one else recognized Caesarion? It seems highly likely that he would have been recognized sooner rather than later and possibly by people who would be more than willing to turn him in for money or to be on the good graces of the Romans. ( )