Glorious Exploits
A Novel
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction
Winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize
Shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year by the Irish Book Awards
Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction Prize
Nominated for the British Book Award for Debut Fiction Book of the Year
Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence
Longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction
Named a Best Book of 2024 by Slate, The Guardian, and the New York Public Library
An utterly original celebration of that which binds humanity across battle lines and history.
On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving Athenians who had the gall to invade their city: they’ve herded the sorry prisoners of war into a rock quarry and left them to rot. Looking for a way to pass the time, Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters with a soft spot for poetry and drink, head down into the quarry to feed the Athenians if, and only if, they can manage a few choice lines from their great playwright Euripides. Before long, the two mates hatch a plan to direct a full-blown production of Medea. After all, you can hate the people but love their art. But as opening night approaches, what started as a lark quickly sets in motion a series of extraordinary events, and our wayward heroes begin to realize that staging a play can be as dangerous as fighting a war, with all sorts of risks to life, limb, and friendship.
Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving, Glorious Exploits is an unforgettable ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Themes of friendship, loss, war, and unabashed humor all run through this historical fiction debut. In 412 BC, two unemployed childhood friends decide to stage two plays by Euripides in a sun-baked quarry, with starving Athenian prisoners as their actors. The pair get backing, acquire costumes, and attempt to nurse the cast back to health—all in the name of a good story. In this love letter to the arts, Ferdia Lennon confidently walks the line between gallows humor and deep sentimentality, contrasting brutal moments about the horrors of war with unexpected moments of smashing wit. And somehow, it all fits together perfectly. Part Monty Python, part Waiting for Godot, this absurdist romp is as devastating as it is hilarious.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Lennon brings ancient Sicily to life with humor and pathos in his stunning debut. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are being held prisoner in Syracuse after a failed assault during the Peloponnesian War. Two unemployed potters, Lampo and Gelon, decide to recruit some of the prisoners, who have been left to die in quarries near the city, to perform a selection of Euripides' plays in exchange for food. Gelon, fearing the defeat of Athens could mean the end of its rich history of tragic drama, wants to stage Medea and The Trojan Women, the latter of which depicts the grim aftermath of Troy's defeat in the Trojan War. Lampo becomes increasingly invested in the project and discomfited by the brutal treatment of Sicily's vanquished rivals. By giving his leads a sense of purpose during dark and bloody times, Lennon makes the success of their offbeat venture feel important to the reader, and he thoroughly explores the novel's melancholy central theme—the world is "a wounded thing that can only be healed by story"—all the way up to the gut-punch denouement. It's not all dreary, though. Lampo's crackling modern vernacular adds just the right amount of levity, as when he comments on the hot weather: "Even the lizards are hiding, poking their heads out from under rocks and trees as if to say, Apollo, are you fucking joking?" Lennon's vital tale captivates.
