Fabulous Fiction Firsts #842

Tue, 08/06/2024 - 10:25am by muffy

Ferdia Lennon’s Glorious Exploits * * * (also in downloadable eBook and audiobook) is the 2024 winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize. One of the judges called it “a riotous, exuberant treat of a novel, which celebrates the redemptive power of art, … madly ambitious and devastatingly affecting, but above all pure page-turning joy from start to finish.’’ 

412 BCE, Syracuse, Sicily. At the height of the Peloponnesian War, thousands of Athenian soldiers from a failed invasion were held prisoners in the limestone quarries on the outskirts of the city. Starved and left to broil in the relentless sun, the Athenians were eager to participate when 2 young Sicilians hatched an outrageous scheme. 

Our narrator, 30 year-old Lampo and his friend Gelon, two directionless, unemployed potters with a soft spot for poetry and wine, were admirers of the great playwright Euripides. To pass the time, they frequented the quarries, offering food in exchange for a few lines of poetry. Then the friends decided to enlist the prisoners in a full-blown production of Medea and The Trojan Women.  

“Glorious Exploits, is very much a story about the power of stories - and the spiritual and emotional succour they give.” (The Guardian)

“Exploring themes of friendship, loyalty, and the toll of war, Lennon evokes a time when it was common to relish and revere the art of Homer's poetry and Euripides' drama. Those with that appetite today are fortunate to have Madeline Miller, Emily Wilson, Pat Barker, and recently James Hynes' Sparrow. And Lennon. An entertaining and impressive debut.” (Kirkus Reviews)

 * * * = 3 starred reviews