In the first century A.D., Publius Ovidius NasoOvidthe witty and worldly poet of imperial Rome, is exiled to a desolate outpost on the edge of the Black Sea. From this fragment of historical fact, David Malouf weaves a bold and deeply affecting novel of exile, transformation, and human connection.

Cut off from his language and homeland, Ovid finds himself among a people whose customs are as foreign as their landscapewhere the dead are impaled and the living speak with spirits. Isolated yet observant, he slowly begins to adapt, drawn into the rhythms of a life far removed from Rome’s elegance.

His world shifts again when he becomes caretaker to a feral childmute, wild, and raised among deer. What follows is a tender and luminous exploration of language, love, and the boundaries between civilization and the natural world. As the poet teaches the boy to speak, and the boy teaches the poet how to feel, their bond becomes a quiet act of redemption in an unforgiving land.