The poet Ovid, exiled at the far away borders of the Roman Empire, in what is now the city of Constanța, in Romania is par excellence the symbol of the artist punished by the a government for expressing his opinions. The Emperor Augustus who sent Ovid out of the Roman sights can be any of the political actors unhappy and jealous on the popularity of artists and intellectuals in general. Except that since then, free thinkers faced much worse punishments that spending some time in a quiet place at the border of the Black Sea: as we can still see all around our world, in Iran or Russia or Belarus or Azerbaijan, they may pay with their own lives. Ovid escaped those attempts against his life, others haven´t.
Romanian-German author Michael V. Solomon took upon himself the enormous duty of imagining the story of Ovid out of his exile. Such a literary task is extremely hard because re-writing the past is a risky bet. However, The Scapegoat, the fate of Ovid as he is returning to Rome is a historical rendition with strong references to our current world affairs and ways of dealing with the world in general. The story is also a bitter lesson of what happens when the world of words and the politics collide.
The Scapegoat is a thoughtful and interesting novel, with a good historical background research and unique take on historical facts. A long yet heartly recommended weekend read.
Rating: 4 stars
Disclaimer: Book offered as part of the book tour but the opinions are, as usual, my own
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