Author Description

Inanna, a goddess of ancient Mesopotamia, was worshipped around 1800 BCE by our ancestors in the land that is now modern-day Iraq. But who was she? Who were her followers? And what did her stories mean for their lives? Lost for millennia, Inanna’s stories were buried and forgotten, unearthed by archaeologists only recently, around the turn of the 19th century. Their translation has been a remarkable work of collaboration by scholars from disparate parts of the globe, as fragments of stone tablets were pieced together and the symbols on them recorded, transliterated, and interpreted. And although we still know relatively little about this ancient time, a picture of this extraordinary figure has slowly begun to emerge, through the painstaking work of these dedicated scholars: Inanna the creator, Inanna the destroyer; the leader, the warrior, the lover, the friend. Inanna was a guiding light for her followers, a commanding symbol of justice and honour, and her stories have much to teach a contemporary readership about love, power, independence, and compassion. Now, these stories are brought to vivid, visceral life by beloved Canadian author Kim Echlin, who brings her trademark passion and poet’s sensibility to the translation of the Inanna myth. With a new introduction and comprehensive notes, this new English version renders Inanna’s powerful story accessible and captivating for a new generation of eager readers.