Exclusive interview with novelist Kate Quinn and a review of her novel Daughters of Rome
Rating: 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
“The bill for Daughters of Rome would end up including two Ben Hur-style chariot races, a Colosseum scene a la Gladiator, a major battle involving four armored legions, and enough costumed extras to fill the ranks of two rioting mobs,” says Daughters of Rome author Kate Quinn. “I’m not holding my breath for a Hollywood deal. Of course, it’s fun to daydream… The Oscar-winning blockbuster directed by Ridley Scott and starring Anne Hathaway and Blake Lively!”
Daughters of Rome presents Rome vividly as a place where women have more power in politics than it seems. If you love ancient history you will enjoy all the facts about ancient Rome in this novel. The story is so big it can be confusing which sister and their cousins are doing what.
It’s A.D. 69 and the Roman Empire is up for grabs. This is the “Year of Four Emperors”. Everything in Rome will change. Two sisters are at the center of the storm. Cornelia is the perfect Roman wife…graceful, elegant and ambitious for her husband. Marcella, her sister, is writing a record of history as happens around them and unintentionally influencing history by doing so. A coup will change both their lives. Will they survive? Will one of them become Empress?
“I’ve always been a Roman history buff, and the first time I read that wonderful phrase ‘Year of Four Emperors’ I knew I had to write a book around it,” says Quinn. “And four such different Emperors…a bad-tempered old crank, a metrosexual party boy, a fat ex-jock, and a genial Everyman. Who could resist? All I had to do was plop four girls down in all the chaos with the four Emperors, and I had a book.”
“Fortunately my mother is a librarian, so I was able to get books from all over the country,” says Quinn. “I read everything I could get my hands on about the Year of Four Emperors, from Wikipedia to Tacitus. The Internet is a terrific tool. Wikipedia is one of the best resources a writer can have.”
Quinn says she wasn’t able to visit Rome while researching this book, however she hopes to for the next one. “I’d have loved to go to Rome and do some hands-on research… actually see the Gemonian Stairs, the Forum, the palaces where various Emperors got stabbed, hanged or torn to pieces over the course of the year.”
While writing Daughters of Rome, Quinn developed her own shorthand, often written on Post-It notes, for recording the myriad historical facts incorporated into her book. “It all makes perfect sense to me, but anyone from the outside would assume I went completely nuts, like Russell Crowe finding imaginary codes in the newspaper in A Beautiful Mind. Fortunately my husband was very good about it all, merely inquiring mildly from time to time why there was a Post-It with ‘Google headless Romans York’ on our fridge.” Examples of Quinn‘s notes: “C and DD go to Tarracina; idyll. M blue-balls Dom. L @ AP’s. Fish. Finds out Thrax poisoned FV.”
Quinn is currently writing her third book about ancient Rome. “It’s a sequel to Mistress of Rome, which itself is a sequel to Daughters of Rome. “I didn’t plan on writing a trilogy at first, which is why the books somehow ended up getting written 2-1-3 instead of 1-2-3.”
Daughters of Rome by Kate Quinn. Trade Paperback, 400 pages, Publisher: Berkley Trade; Reprint edition (April 5, 2011). Language: English, ISBN: 9780425238974 $15.00
