Christopher Cosmos' ambitious second novel, Young Conquerors, is a fictional retelling of Alexander the Great’s life. The book follows the University of Michigan grad's 2020 debut, Once We Were Here. 

Young Conquerors begins with a departure. Hephaestion, the book’s narrator, is leaving his homeland just as he comes of age because his uncle will see him as a threat to the throne. When Hephaestion prepares to leave, he already recognizes, “If I’m going to grow, and if I’m going to find out all that I will know, and all that I can be, and the different type of strength I’ve been given, then I need to leave, and it can’t wait any longer.”

His subsequent journey from Salona in Illyria to Pella in Macedonia sets him on a new, irrevocable course, on which he will train as a soldier and conqueror, learn about politics, geography, and religion, and, perhaps most importantly, meet the love of his life. 

In Pella, Hephaestion describes how he meets Alexandros, son of the current basileus, Philippos. After Hephaestion wins the approval of Philippos, the two begin training together, along with Alexandros’ close companions. All these young men are around the age of 15, so this time together is formative and provides crucial preparation for their later endeavors. 

Alexandros and Hephaestion quickly become especially close, and Hephaestion ponders their future: 

I feel him against me, his pulse, his breath, both of them quickening. “It’s bigger than us, Hephaestion,” his voice is even lower now, softer, even more quiet.

“What is?”

“My father dreams of going south, and conquering all of Greece, and everyone calls him a visionary for it. But fathers so rarely change the world, and do you know why? Fathers so rarely change the world, because it’s their sons who do that.” 

I think of Alexandros’ mis-colored eyes. 

I think of where they turn, and where they look, where they always look. 

The horizon.

The unconquered, and the unknown. The rising sun.

If there’s no room for the type of love that Ptolemaios and Cleopatra have in this world, then is there room for this? Is there room for us? 

I don’t know. 

Maybe not in this world, I think. 

But another? 

One that we could make, together? 

“Wherever you go, Alexandros,” I finally tell him, not knowing where the words come from, only that they’re the truth, and they’re not mine, but they also are. “Wherever you go, I will go with you.”

Alexandros studies the Iliad, and as a pair, Hephaestion and Alexandros become like Achilleus and Patroklos. They face trials and battles that test their strength and show them what they can accomplish. 

Cosmos and I caught up about his new book. 

Q: The last time we talked was three years ago when we discussed your first novel, Once We Were Here. Your new novel, Young Conquerors, was just published. What have you been up to in the time in between books? 
A: Since we last spoke, and outside of Young Conquerors, I’ve been hard at work trying to put a film adaptation of Once We Were Here together, and I also had a movie I wrote based on an old Marvel character start filming, with a title and release date hopefully coming soon.

I’m a very proud graduate of the screenwriting program at the University of Michigan, which I try to put to good use, too, in addition to the novels I write! 

But my main focus in a lot of ways and for a lot of reasons has been Young Conquerors.

Q: Young Conquerors is your second book. What is new or different with writing or sharing your latest novel? 
A: One of the biggest differences is the entire creative team for this novel is all Michigan-based, from me to the amazing cover designer, interior designer, and the printer who’s printed a bunch of special editions [of Young Conquerors] that are all hand-signed, have special spot gloss and matte finish on the cover and jacket, and are being sold exclusively via Michigan-based indie bookstores for the same price as copies available on Amazon or anywhere else

The idea being, if you buy one of these special editions, every dollar spent will go to support Michigan-based artists as well as small businesses, and I’m very proud Schuler Books in Ann Arbor is one of the stores that has these copies! 

I’ve felt incredibly supported by the booksellers that stock, recommend, and promote my work, as well as my community here in Michigan that has made both this and everything else I’m able to do possible, so am very glad to have the opportunity with these special editions to give back and support them as much as I possibly can, too.

So, if you’re interested, please grab your copy from Schuler Books—and they also ship anywhere in the world!

Q: We previously talked about how you decided to write your first novel on the Greek participation in World War II. I have a similar question for the topic of this novel, Young Conquerors. Why Alexandros and Hephaestion in Pella, Greece in 341 B.C.?
A: It seemed like a natural fit to move from the story of how the ordinary men and women of Greece helped to save the world, to perhaps the most extra-ordinary of the Greeks to ever live, and how the lasting influence of who Alexandros was and what he did is still felt, even to the present day.

And that, in short, is what Young Conquerors is: the story of Alexandros’ early life in Greece and how a middle child from a northern Greek kingdom who was never supposed to rule goes on to do just that and become one of the greatest figures history has ever seen, in a story and life that plays out like a real-life Game of Thrones set in Ancient Greece.

Q: Along the same vein, your earlier novel takes place in the 20th century, but Young Conquerors is much, much further in the past. How did you familiarize yourself with this era? What surprising things did you learn about life in 341 B.C.? 
A: The most surprising things I’ve learned during the course of this novel are actually about our world now, rather than the one in which Alexandros and Hephaestion lived. 

To cite just one example, a printer I initially approached declined to give me a quote for the project citing something along the lines of a moral objection to the subject matter, which absolutely floored me.

When I started writing, I thought the world was ready for a story such as this one. 

The biggest surprise for me thus far has been to learn the world is perhaps not as ready as I thought, which is something that of course only makes it more urgent and necessary.

Q: Related to the question right before this, after acquainting yourself with the time period and historical figures, how historically accurate is the book? What liberties did you take with the storylines? 
A: One of the best things about writing historical fiction, and especially historical fiction set this far in the past, is there are the broad strokes of people’s lives available to us, then the rest is left to be filled in—the space between great deeds and monumental dates.

And that’s what I’m most concerned with, as an author, and that’s the space in which Young Conquerors lives: trying to capture the emotional essence of these two characters whose passion and ambition helped shape each other, and also the world we live in today.

Q: Hephaestion and Alexandros possess strong morals and face huge challenges as they train to be soldiers, anticipate ruling the kingdom, and seek to conquer more places. How did you get inside the narrator Hephaestion’s head as you wrote?
A: To be very honest, I think trying to get inside the head of someone like Alexandros who so clearly thinks differently than anyone else is an impossible task, so the natural way, for me, was to tell the story from the perspective of Hephaestion who can essentially be all of us. Then along with him, and through his eyes, we can witness Alexandros and their journey together with the same awe and wonder that he does, as if we were there every step of the way, too.

Q: Hephaestion frequently reflects on his and Alexandros’ positions and what they mean to each other, which he is well positioned to do as the first-person narrator. He reflects, “Perhaps in this world we are what we choose to be, and perhaps we can become something different than what we were born, and that is carried within us, in our blood, rushing and pumping through our veins, our bodies, our souls, our hearts and our spirits.” Hephaestion is exiled to Macedonia but hopes to return to his home of Illyria to rule. Do you think this change that he is mulling over—“we can become something different than what we were born”—is possible? Do you think Hephaestion achieves such change, and why? 
A: I think personal change such as what Hephaestion is thinking about and experiences is both the reason we’re here, and also one of the great reasons we tell stories. 

I heard a quote recently from the legendary investor Charlie Munger that was something along the lines of: “our great obligation as humans, every year that we’re alive, is to take one firmly held belief we have and destroy it.”

At the beginning of Young Conquerors, who Hephaestion is and his goals and dreams are one thing, and by the end, even he is surprised to find they’ve become something completely different.

The catalyst for that change, for him, is love. 

Shouldn’t we all be so fortunate to have that same catalyst in our own lives and be able to lose ourselves in an ideal, and another person, whoever it might be, as wholly and completely as he does, and experience what that connection can lead to.

Q: Let’s talk more about that love and connection that Hephaestion possesses. In the book, a linchpin to the rise of Alexandros and subsequently Hephaestion is the relationship between these two, which turns into love as Hephaestion describes when they are at the lake: 

We sit there like that for many hours, as light turns to dark, and day and sun turn to moon and stars, because that’s what’s now between us and these new things and secrets which, like all secrets, when they’re shared, begin to grow and expand and surround and take hold in the grass, in the rocks, in the hills and mountains, and in us. We feel that. I know that we do, that we both feel that, and we let ourselves. We let ourselves feel it, and feel it deeply. Then when it’s all finally there and between us and grown in an unmoveable, unshakeable, indestructible way, we finally stand and go back to our horses and head down through the near-darkness and towards the city. 

Tell us about their relationship. How does their love story support them? 
A: I think it’s love that sustains and supports all of us, in all that we do, in every moment of our too short time here. It was also something so important to the Greeks and so specific that they had three different words for it.

Of course, it’s been my great pleasure to be able to give Hephaestion and Alexandros the love story that is so important to who they each were, and which has been either questioned or excluded in so many of the other things written about them.

Q: What are you reading right now? 
A: I’ve been very busy getting Young Conquerors into the world and I’m afraid I owe a bunch of people endorsement blurbs for their own work—so my reading right now is filled with manuscripts that haven’t yet been published!

Q: Are more Greek historical fiction novels on the horizon for you? 
A: I don’t think I’ll ever stop writing about Greece. I’ve also started living there for a few months every year, so for pictures of Greece, locations from Young Conquerors, and more, follow along on Instagram @christophercosmos. I love hearing from readers, and that’s the best place to reach me!

Martha Stuit is a former reporter and current librarian.