A tragic yet inspiring tale set in Ancient Rome that traces the life of a king's daughter, confined to a childhood of slavery, who is chosen by a goddess to disseminate the Tables of the Venus Anh, a set of women's rights and duties. During early adulthood she is stabbed in the heart while preaching, but is resurrected in a temple as the goddess of women's rights. While continuing to spread her message, her lifelong dream of marrying Julius Caesar is thwarted when he is murdered a month before their wedding date.
The epic begins with the heroine's mother Anh fleeing her home country of Vietnam during the Chinese invasion in 111 BC. She sails with her slave master Quyen to Parthia (present day Saudi Arabia) where she is captured by local warriors and taken to Borsippa (in present day Iraq) as a slave at an iron workshop. After withstanding abuse and rape by her guard, he transports her to "freedom" in the kingdom of Bithynia (near present day Istanbul, Turkey), where she is sold to a new, more compassionate slave master.
In Bithynia, Anh meets the king's son, Nicomedes IV and on April 21st, 100 BC she gives birth to her daughter, also named Anh. At age 20, daughter Anh is gifted by her father to Julius Caesar who brings his new lover to Rome. Anh then meets the goddess Venus on a Mediterranean beach and receives the Tables of the Venus Anh inscribed on a seashell. Anh, bestowed with her new name "Venus Anh", is sent by the goddess to disseminate the message in the Roman Republic.
Years later Venus Anh receives news of the murder of her parents in Bithynia. Soon after, she encounters the murderer in the Roman Forum who stabs her through the heart. Venus Anh is resurrected in the Temple of Jupiter as the goddess of women's rights and resumes her preaching while continually pursuing her lover Julius Caesar until his murder a month before their wedding date.
This story weaves a mystical and sometimes esoteric journey through topics including women's rights, leadership and influence, sexuality and LGBT, abuse and rape, revenge, slavery, divinity and the abyss.
Complementary material is available at the website venusanh.com and on social media. The author has created images for all 55 scenes in the poem, the result of an ambitious photography project involving dozens of models at stunning locations throughout Italy. The imagery will be published separately in 2018.
The VA logo is a registered trademark. The author donates a portion of the proceeds from book sales, merchandise sales, etc. to charitable causes that help promote women's rights based on the Tables of the Venus Anh