DAUGHTERS OF CHAOS

In 1862, Sylvie Swift leaves the Kentucky farm where she was raised with her twin brother, Silas, for Nashville, where her life takes an otherworldly turn.

Following her older sister Marina’s abrupt departure years before and Silas’ decision to join the Confederate army, Sylvie finds herself alone. When an obscure play called Apocrypha mysteriously shows up on her doorstep, she begins translating it from ancient Greek. As the project develops, she begins to feel compelled to track down the anonymous sender of the script. Her instinct takes her to Nashville, which is entirely different from her bucolic home. Against the backdrop of a city struggling to control a syphilis outbreak, feed the poor, and fund the Civil War, Sylvie meets Evangeline Price, the proprietor of a brothel whose clientele includes politicians, military officers, and high-society gentlemen—and who has a curious connection to Marina. Eventually it becomes clear that there’s far more going on at Evangeline’s establishment—and, indeed, in Nashville—than it appears. As Sylvie’s translation takes shape with the help of Evangeline’s multitalented workforce, she begins to make connections between the Ephesus of the play (inspired by Aristophanes’ Lysistrata) and the Nashville underworld she becomes increasingly tangled up in—finding parallels between the Greek women (mortals and gods alike) seeking to undermine the male violence surrounding them and the women of the American South. Based on the true story of Nashville’s attempt to exile its prostitutes during the Civil War, Fawkes’ novel layers found texts—including journal entries, letters, and play scenes—to create an enchanting, immersive narrative interweaving the everyday with the fantastical and Civil War history with Greek mythology. She prompts us to question familiar notions of history and reminds us of the quiet, adaptable power of women through the ages. Sylvie learns the often-dangerous ancient ways of female rebellion but is preoccupied not by the peril of her situation, but by the absence of Marina, whose presence she feels everywhere. A riot of lust, secrets, gods, and mythical creatures make this a thoroughly entertaining novel, rich in detail and lavish prose.

Fawkes shines a light on women troublemakers through time in this dazzling feminist tale.