Second paragraph of third chapter:

Climb a little over scrubby branches and broken thorns that catch at the hems of wanderers, and one will reach a promontory that bulges from the land to peek up like a naughty child between fingers of faded leaf and broken stone, commanding a view upon sea and town, the crooked roofs of the palace and curling groves of rough-boughed trees. This is not usually a place disturbed by human voices, being a solitary kind of local fit for a prowling lynx or yellow-beaked hunting bird. Yet now as we draw near, we may hear something truly remarkable for Ithaca – not merely voices, but that most unusual combination of melodies – a man and a woman, speaking together.

So, it’s the climax of the excellent trilogy of novels by Claire North, following Ithaca and House of Odysseus, in which the goddess Athena tells us how Odysseus returns to Penelope and Ithaca, bringing more violence with him; and there is a final reckoning with the suitors and their relatives. The scene where Odysseus wreaks undeserved vengeance on Penelope’s servants is particularly and horribly well done, as is the sequence where Odysseus, Penelope and their supporters are holed up in a stockade, Wild West style, waiting for the bad guys to attack. There are lots of beautifully done small moments too, many of them reflecting on gender and power. This was a great set of books, and they deserve to be better known. You can get The Last Song of Penelope here.