Thank you very much, canongatebooks, for what looks like another fascinating tale from Salley Vickers. I've very much enjoyed her four previous novels and look forward to reading this one as well. It's gone straight to the top of Mt TBR and I plan to read it over the Bank Holiday Weekend. Good timing!

From the back cover: "Sigmund Freud lies ill. A man whose work, whose very life, has depended on the power of speech has now been all but silenced by cancer of the jaw. In the waking darkness he receives a strange visitor, who has come to tell a story that Freud will recognise.
"But this is a different account of what happened when Oedipus met his father at the place where three roads meet. Salley Vickers's retelling of this great tragedy is as enlightening as it is unexpected. It is also a deeply moving portrait of the last days of Freud."

Is a fascination with the myths and legends of Ancient Greece and Rome a stage we all go through? I certainly did, although it was many years ago in my youth! Reading Salley Vickers' reworking of the tragic tale of Oedipus brought it all back to me, all those stories of gods and heroes which have been told and retold through the ages.

To my mind, linking this reworking with Sigmund Freud was inspired. With hindsight, now that she's written it in this way, it seems an obvious thing to do. The two are so interwoven in the public's mind that you can't think of one without the other - but it was a brilliant idea on her part and one that was beautifully executed.

I'll admit to a bias in that I've read other novels by Salley Vickers and love her writing style. Her way with words echoes something within me and I found Where Three Roads Meet well up to the standard that I've come to expect from her.

As Freud lies seriously ill and later dying, Tiresias appears and slowly uncovers the true history of Oedipus, challenging some of his own interpretations and giving the reader new insights into this well-known story. We all know Oedipus as the man who killed his father and married his mother. Here we meet him as a real person, living out his destiny, which may or may not have been under his control.

In conclusion, I thoroughly enjoyed this intriguing account of the Oedipus myth as related to Freud by one who was there and took part in its unfolding.

I'm now passing this book on to tree-hugger with my strong recommendation.

Note to self: Find out more about Freud's final illness

Irrelevant aside: We have goldfinches coming to feed in our garden. I love watching them and was delighted to learn that their collective noun is a charm. I don't think I knew that before!

Thanks for this Nu-Knees. I'm not a massive Freud fan, but I am a fan of myths, so I expect I'll enjoy this. I read a book in this Canongate myths range last year actually, and enjoyed that. I'll have to read some of the others too - what an excellent idea for a series.

I apologise for keeping this one for so long. I kept starting and stopping. I'm afraid I didn't really take to it. I liked the idea of it, and there was nothing wrong with the way it was written, it just didn't really grab me. Sorry. Passing this back to Nu-Knees, I think she'll be adding it to her permanent collection.

Thank you, Tree-hugger - and my apologies that my instinct for what you may or may not find interesting appears to have deserted me!

As a fan of Salley Vickers, I'm now putting this with her others in my permanent collection. Thank you again, canongatebooks!

For some strange reason involving swaps/book sharing, I've had two copies of this myth through my hands - and read both of them. You can read the journal entries on the other copy here: Where Three Roads Meet

Much as I appreciated this book and much as Salley Vickers is one of my favourite authors, I'm now letting it go to find a new reader. It's shelf-tidying time. I really don't need to keep so many novels in my permanent collection .....

Amazon Editorial Review: "It is 1938 and Sigmund Freud, suffering from the debilitating effects of cancer, has been permitted by the Nazis to leave Vienna. He seeks refuge in England, taking up residence in the house in Hampstead in which he will die only fifteen months later. But his last months are made vivid by the arrival of a stranger, who comes and goes according to Freud's state of health. Who is the mysterious visitor and why has he come to tell the famed proponent of the Oedipus complex his strange story? Set partly in pre-war London and partly in ancient Greece, Where three roads meets is as brilliantly compelling as it is moving. Former psychoanalyst and acclaimed novelist Salley Vickers revisits a crime committed long ago which still has disturbing reverberations for us all."

I'm not sure how active this Official BookCrossing Zone is these days, only two booklets on the table, but I left a few books anway! This was one of them!

Over two million people around the world give their books a unique BookCrossing IDentity number (BCID) before sending them out to find new readers. Since the start of the scheme in April 2001 more than ten million such books have been put into circulation. This is one of them!

Our hope is that we can track the progress of our books once they've left our hands - and that's possible if finders like you visit the website, key in the BCID and leave a comment, however long or short. It's fun, it doesn't have to cost anything, although the site always appreciates donations towards running costs, and you can remain anonymous if you wish. You don't have to join but if you do you'll be able to number and track your own books!