“No one in this city has believed in me for two thousand years. I’m unknown and unloved. And I’m very, very ill.” He sighed, and the sound chilled her blood. “Give me your hand.”
Dionysus is re-born in a city which is never named, but which can only be Rome. He doesn’t understand how or why he’s there again – a pagan god in a city where he has no believers.
Weak and disorientated, he’s sleeping rough when he meets fifteen year old Grace; a chance encounter in the streets of the Jewish Ghetto leads to the beginnings of an unconventional relationship. It seems that the god needs Grace more than she needs him, but along with her best friends, Caroline and Sara, she overcomes scepticism and fear to become his worshipper.
This is the beginning of their secret lives – prayers, shrines and “sleepovers” that are actually bacchanals. Their families are suspicious and their schoolwork begins to suffer, but after the first bloodshed, they know that there’s no turning back.
As Dionysus feeds off the energy of his vulnerable new followers, revelling in the chaos and violence of the bacchanals, it becomes clear that he is using the girls as a means to an end. His memories of past incarnations inspire the eventual climax on the Aventine Hill – the night to end his exile.
A cross between The Bacchae and The Secret History, In Exile is a teenage Greek tragedy set in 20th century Rome. The novel explores the themes of identity, sexuality, friendship and belief, and is an original study of a powerless, melancholy god living in exile in the Eternal City. It’s also a book for anyone who has ever been enchanted by Rome, a city which, like Dionysus, belongs to the past, waiting uneasily on the threshold of the modern era.
More information
Alexandra Turney
Alexandra Turney grew up in London and studied English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. She lives in Rome, where she works as an English teacher and freelance writer. Her specialities include helping Italians to understand the present perfect and writing about alternative tourist attractions in Rome. Almost all of her writing, both fictional and non-fictional, is related to Italy in some way, and has appeared in the Huffington Post, Go Nomad, L’Italo-Americano, Panoram Italia and Urban Travel Blog.
In Exile is her second novel, dreamt up on the metro – “What would happen if Dionysus were re-born in a 20th century Rome where no one believed in him?” Inspired by Euripides’ The Bacchae, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and an obscure 19th century sub-genre of “Greek gods in exile” stories, In Exile tells the story of a melancholy Dionysus and his three teenage followers in Rome.
Alexandra has always been interested in the theme of exile, and the feeling of living in the wrong place or time. Passions for 19th century literature and post-punk/new wave music of the 1980s mean that she was born at least a couple of decades (if not centuries) too late.
She is currently halfway through writing her third novel, The Living Cult, set in a Purgatory based on Naples.
Alexandra writes about life in Rome and Italian culture on her blog, Go Thou to Rome. You can also follow her on Instagram.
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27th February 2019The final update
(a very satisfying photo)
This is going to be my last update to pledgers - if you want to keep in touch, you can follow my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or blog. I don't have an official website yet, but it's on my to-do list, along with things like "learn to drive" and "understand the congiuntivo". One day!
The book launch in Rome was a success.
Tiffany Parks and I had a chat about…
7th February 2019Post-publication: book launch and a request for reviews (please!)
(dancing maenad)
All pledgers should have received their copies of In Exile by now. I know that a pledger in Australia is already reading it, which means that if you don't have your copy yet, something's probably gone wrong. You can contact Unbound here.
A quick round-up of post-publication stuff:
The Rome book launch is confirmed. Either Otherwise or Altroquando (two bookshops with…
16th January 2019Publication and book launch news
It's here! My copies of In Exile arrived this week, and pledger copies should be on your doorstep or in your inbox very soon...
Opening the box and seeing the book for the first time was exciting, but the most surreal moment came on the metro. I was sitting on the train on the way to work, somewhere between Bologna and Conca d'Oro, looking at the book. Then it occurred me to that it was exactly…
2nd January 2019Three weeks to go!
(Bacchus by Simeon Solomon)
Happy New Year!
If you've pledged for a copy of In Exile, your copy should be arriving soon, before the official launch date of 24 January. Keep your eyes peeled for an email from Unbound asking you to confirm/change your address.
I'm hoping to have news about the book launch in Rome soon, but things happen slowly here...In the meantime:
"A perfect balance of the classical with a sinister edge", say Unbound, and I agree. How amazing would this look as a poster? Imagine getting off the Tube or metro and BAM - creepy Dionysus/Grace staring into your soul.
Also, many thanks to the final pledger, #151, the mysterious H. N.
"Grace traced the carved initials on a church wall with her finger and wondered if H. N. had ever felt…
22nd November 20182 months to go till publication....
(The Young Bacchus by Tommaso Salini)
Pre-ordering In Exile
If you haven't already bought In Exile, here's where you can pre-order the book:
If you want to order online but think Amazon are evil, consider Hive - with the pre-order offer, it's the cheapest deal, and they also support…
25th September 2018Behind the scenes...
(A maenad - from a fresco at Pompeii)
If you're wondering where the book is, the answer is that technically, it still doesn't exist - at least not in printed form. But as I've discovered over the last few months, producing a book is a lengthy process, involving lots of people over the various stages, working to different deadlines.
As it's been a few months since In Exile was funded…
1st June 2018100% funded!
(A Bacchanal by Jan Brueghel the Elder)
In Exile is 100% funded! You made this happen!
I reached 100% last night. Then I dreamt that someone was telling me that I actually had to reach 200%, and I woke up in a panic. But it's okay, 100% is enough, thank god...
Thank you all so much for your support, whether it was financial or emotional or both. When I started the process six months…
15th May 2018Gods in Exile - a collection of very short stories
(Bacchus by Simeon Solomon)
"The latter by no means declared the ancient gods to be myths, inventions of falsehood and error, as did the philosophers, but held them to be evil spirits, who, through the victory of Christ, had been hurled from the summit of their power, and now dragged along their miserable existences in the obscurity of dismantled temples or in enchanted groves, and by their…
18th March 2018Dionysus: an introduction
(Dionysus in a Neo-Attic relief, Museum of Naples)
Dionysus - the Greek god of wine, fertility, theatre, religious ecstasy and ritual madness - is one of the protagonists of In Exile.
I discovered Dionysus when I was a teenager, doing an A-Level in Classical Civilisation. One of the set texts was Euripides' The Bacchae, a Greek tragedy about Dionysus taking revenge in spectacularly bloody…
10th March 201860% funded!
(from Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne)
Bacchus isn't quite back yet, but we're getting there..
There's something very satisfying about reaching 60%. 50% was nice - halfway. But 60% is the standard exam pass mark (at least for the English language tests I mark on a daily basis), so 60% feels real, substantial. It's a pass!
111 people have pledged to buy In Exile so far. When I try to…
