In the first century ad, publius ovidius naso, the most urbane and irreverent poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the black sea. From these sparse facts, one of our most distinguished n...In the first century ad, publius ovidius naso, the most urbane and irreverent poet of imperial Rome, was banished to a remote village on the edge of the black sea. From these sparse facts, one of our most distinguished novelists has fashioned an audacious and supremely moving work of fiction.