Annabel Lyon crafts prose that has been nominated for a slew of awards and has earned her a reputation as a deft literary stylist. In Lyon's novel The Golden Mean, a Scotia Giller Prize finalist, Aristotle narrates his time spent mentoring King Philip's son, the boy who would become known for all of history as Alexander the Great. Fearful of the boy's appetite for conquest, the great philosopher tries to impart in him the wisdom of choosing a middle path between extremes.