Ithaca
A Novel of Homer's Odyssey
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In the tumultuous aftermath of the Trojan War, a young man battles to save his home and his inheritance. Setting out to find his father, he ends up discovering himself.
Telemachus’s father, Odysseus, went off to war before he was born...and never came back. Aged sixteen, Telemachus finds himself abandoned, his father’s house overrun with men pursuing his beautiful mother, Penelope, and devouring the family’s wealth. He determines to leave Ithaca, his island home, and find the truth. What really happened to his father? Was Odysseus killed on his journey home from the war? Or might he, one day, return to take his revenge?
Telemachus's journey takes him across the landscape of bronze-age Greece in the aftermath of the great Trojan war. Veterans hide out in the hills. Chieftains, scarred by war, hoard their treasure in luxurious palaces. Ithaca re-tells Homer’s famous poem, The Odyssey, from the point of view of Odysseus’ resourceful and troubled son, describing Odysseus’s extraordinary voyage from Troy to the gates of hell, and Telemachus’s own journey from boyhood to the desperate struggle that wins back his home...and his father.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Dillon's vibrant retelling of The Odyssey is set during the aftermath of the Trojan War and centers on Telemachus, son of the Greek war hero Odysseus. The book deftly chronicles the 16-year-old's feelings of abandonment, humiliation, and anguish as he tries to protect his mother, Penelope, and discover the whereabouts of the father he has never met. Penelope was pregnant with Telemachus when Odysseus left their island home of Ithaca for the battle of Troy to rescue the celebrated beauty Helen. The Greeks were victorious after many years because of Odysseus's legendary act of subterfuge, the Trojan Horse. Back in Ithaca, Telemachus's home is occupied by lewd, savage men who steal the family's valuables, squat in their courtyard, and torment Penelope. Telemachus reluctantly decides to leave his mother and search for his father. Dillon's (The Story of Buildings) use of the father-son bond and their parallel journeys Odysseus's traumatic, meandering trip toward home and Telemachus's turbulent ascent to manhood is as rich as it is complex. This is a smart and highly readable adventure, and a fresh take on a classic story.
