Creation

One of the finest novels about the ancient world -- in a restored edition, featuring five never-before-published chapters from Gore Vidal's original manuscript -- Creation offers a captivating grand tour of the fifth century B.C. and of the many lasting ideas that date back to this most spectacular period in history.

Cyrus Spitama, grandson of Zoroaster and lifelong friend of Xerxes, spent most of his life as Persian ambassador for the great king Darius. In that role he traveled to India, where he discussed nirvana with Buddha, and to Cathay, where he fished on the riverbank with Confucius. Now blind and aged in Athens -- the Athens of Pericles, Sophocles, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Socrates -- he recounts his days as he strives to resolve the fundamental questions that have guided his life's journeys: how was the universe created and why was evil created with good. Creation is a sweeping novel of politics, war, philosophy, and adventure, made richer and fuller in this restored edition.