Book guide
The Children of Jocasta
A feminist retelling of Oedipus and Antigone gives voice to Jocasta and Ismene as tragedy closes in on the cursed house of Thebes.
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About The Children of Jocasta
From Natalie Haynes, the Women's Prize shortlisted author of A Thousand Ships, comes The Children of Jocasta, a retelling of Oedipus and Antigone from the perspectives of the women the myths overlooked. My siblings and I have grown up in a cursed house, children of cursed parents . . . Jocasta is just fifteen when she is told that she must marry the King of Thebes, an old man she has never met. Her life has never been her own, and nor will it be, unless she outlives her strange, absent husband. Ismene is the same age when she is attacked in the palace she calls home. Since the day of her parents' tragic deaths a decade earlier, she has always longed to feel safe with the family she still has. But with a single act of violence, all that is about to change. With the turn of these two events, a tragedy is set in motion. But not as you know it.
Reading signals
- Spice
- None
- Darkness
- Dark
- Pacing
- Slow
Content warnings
- sexual assault
- violence
- gore
- forced marriage
- death
- self-harm
- suicide
- child death
- stillbirth
- disturbing imagery
- miscarriage
- incest themes
