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See also www.annabellyon.blogspot.com
75,000 words hardcover
Finished books available
US: Knopf, Fall 2010
Canada: Random House, Fall 2009
Spain: Roca Editorial
France: Editions la Table Ronde
Brazilian Portuguese: Leya Brasil
UK: Atlantic Books
Portugal: Dom Quixote
Croatia: Sareni Ducan
Taiwan: Ye-Ren
Audio: Recorded Books
(Photo: Phillip Chin)
The Golden Mean is Annabel Lyon’s long-awaited first novel. Her story collection Oxygen (2000) and her collection of novellas, The Best Thing for You (2004) were published in Canada to wide acclaim. Annabel studied music, philosophy, and law before she decided to write full-time. She lives in Vancouver with her partner and two children.
by Annabel Lyon
IN THE FRANK, EARTHY, AND ENGAGING VOICE OF ARISTOTLE, THE GOLDEN MEAN BRINGS TO LIFE THE WORLD OF THE ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHER
- 'Triple Crown shakes up CanLit landscape' – The Globe and Mail
- Feature article in the Edmonton Journal
- Winner of the 2009 Rogers Writers' Trust Award (read what the jurors say)
- A national bestseller
- 'And the Giller goes to...' The Toronto Star backs Lyon
- 'The Socratic Method and 9/11' - Annabel Lyon interviewed by Michael Enright on the CBC's Sunday Edition (go to Hour Two)
- Annabel Lyon profile in the Toronto Star
- Annabel Lyon brings Aristotle to life in 'The Golden Mean' - CTV
- Lyon's share of literary world grows - Vancouver Sun
- Trendsetting publisher nabs U.S. rights - The Globe and Mail
- From The Globe and Mail – Annabel Lyon: CanLit's newest golden girl
- Shortlisted for the Governor General's Award 2009 (read what the jurors say)
- Shortlisted for the Giller Prize 2009 (read what the jurors say)
- Read The Georgia Straight's profile of Annabel Lyon
In 342 BC the philosopher Aristotle was persuaded by his former boyhood chum King Philip of Macedonia to serve as tutor to his son, the prince who has come to be known today as Alexander the Great. Along with his teenage wife and nephew, Aristotle remained in the court for seven years, during which time his ambition led him to participate in the ever-more-sinister intrigues of King Philip's warrior court. But Philip eventually lost interest in him and began to favour others, passing over Aristotle for promotion to more prestigious positions.
Prince Alexander, meanwhile, grew from a bright, affectionate boy to an increasingly powerful and ambitious young man, resentful of his father's bullying and womanizing. Aristotle tried to influence the prince in ethics and right conduct, but he soon realized that his teachings had grown twisted in the young man's mind.
Annabel Lyon's masterful prose brings us the intimate details of Aristotle's personality, including his sexuality and his curious malady. As a boy, Aristotle traveled with his doctor father and witnessed such things as caesareans performed without anesthetic and headaches cured by drilling holes in skulls. At the court, he becomes close to Alexander's
mentally challenged brother, whom he finds a personal challenge to teach. We discover how Aristotle achieved his groundbreaking anatomical drawings, and what happened on the day when his student showed up bearing a severed head.
Aristotle's disillusionment with his role in court reaches its nadir at the battle of Chaironea, where Philip's victory secures Macedonian dominion over a number of Greek states, including Athens. Afterwards Aristotle is still not granted a much-coveted foreign assignment, and he feels like a failure. When the king marries a younger wife, threatening to displace Alexander with a new heir, court politics quickly bring The Golden Mean to a murderous climax.
PRAISE FOR THE GOLDEN MEAN
“Few writers would dare to employ Aristotle as their narrator but Annabel Lyon has done exactly this in her extraordinary novel The Golden Mean. In thoughtful and controlled prose that never fails to grip, Lyon presents an unexpected portrait of the young Alexander the Great, a fascinating recreation of Plato’s Academy and brings the ancient world back to life with a splendour I haven’t seen since I, Claudius. A triumph of erudition and story-telling.” — JOHN BOYNE, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
“Historical fiction at its best. Whether posing the eternally relevant question of what it means to live a virtuous life, detailing the gory details of an ancient battle scene or probing the relationship between master and student, Lyon authoritatively evokes a fabled time and place in the urbane and dry voice of the man judged the smartest of his age.” — MONTREAL GAZETTE
“This historical novel adds a refreshingly human dimension to ancient Greek civilization and the world-changing ideas that it produced.” — WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
“Lyon must be applauded for a daring and challenging approach to fiction” — EDMONTON JOURNAL
“...a taut, polished novel that will hold your attention from start to finish. It is at times funny, thought-provoking, sensual and suspenseful.” — EDMONTON JOURNAL
“[An] audacious attempt to create a flesh and blood Aristotle, with intimate glances into his psyche...” — NATIONAL POST
“[A] crisply written, painstakingly researched book, and Lyon ably inhabits ‘the greatest mind of all time’.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“I absolutely loved The Golden Mean. Annabel Lyon brings the philosophers and warriors, artists and whores, princes and slaves of ancient Macedonia alive, with warmth, wit and poignancy. Impeccably researched and brilliantly told, this novel is utterly convincing.” — MARIE PHILLIPS, author of Gods Behaving Badly
“An exhilarating book, both brilliant and profound. Annabel Lyon’s spare, fluid, utterly convincing prose pulls us headlong into Aristotle’s original mind. Only Lyon’s great-hearted intelligence could have imagined and achieved the brave ambition of this book. Vital, ferocious and true, The Golden Mean is an oracular vision of the past made present.” — MARINA ENDICOTT, author of Good to a Fault
“The Golden Mean, so full of intellect, is a pleasure to read. If excellence is our standard, then this novel will certainly flourish.” — DAVID BERGEN, Giller-winning author of The Time in Between
“In Lyon’s clever hands, more than two thousand years of difference are made to disappear and Aristotle feels as real and accessible as the man next door. With this powerful, readable act of the imagination. Lyon proves that she can go anywhere it pleases her to go.” — FRED STENSON , author of The Great Karoo