THE SUNDAY TIMES <\/i>BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024
WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024
WINNER OF THE AUTHORS’ CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF THE PREMIO GREGOR VON REZZORI
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN MCGAHERN PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 (DEBUT FICTION)
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME
A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK<\/b>
PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, <\/i>THE INDEPENDENT, <\/i>THE IRISH TIMES, <\/i>THE FINANCIAL TIMES <\/i>AND THE TLS<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
‘One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years’ Irish Times<\/i><\/p>\n
‘Bold and totally unexpected … I was hooked from the first page’ Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain<\/i><\/p>\n
‘Brilliant … Hilarious, moving, and profound’ R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction.<\/b><\/p>\n
Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads.<\/p>\n
They’re fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost: they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food.<\/p>\n
And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry.<\/p>\n
It’s audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life – love, friendship, art itself – it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of.<\/p>\n
What could possibly go wrong?<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
‘Fierce, funny, fast-paced ? Brings the ancient world roaring to life’ Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre<\/i><\/p>\n
‘Love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph ? A delicious treat of a read. I loved it’ Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Sunday Times <\/i>bestseller, August 2024<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It’s 412 BC, and Athens’ invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected, and hanging on by the slimmest of threads. Lampo and Gelon are local potters, young men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. When they take to visiting the nearby quarry, they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives. And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry. A proper performance to be sung of down the ages. Because after all, you can hate the Athenians for invading your territory, but still love their poetry. But as the audacity of their enterprise dawns on them, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between enemies and friends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[68],"product_tag":[26827,28903,69,26830,26843],"class_list":{"0":"post-106524","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","5":"product_cat-general-fiction","6":"product_tag-narrative-theme-death-grief-loss","7":"product_tag-ancient-greece","8":"product_tag-historical-fiction","9":"product_tag-modern-contemporary-fiction","10":"product_tag-narrative-theme-interior-life","11":"pa_book_author-lennon-ferdia","12":"pa_cover-paperback","13":"pa_dewey-823-92-edition23","14":"pa_edition-1st-paperback-ed","15":"pa_imprint-penguin-books","16":"pa_language-english","17":"pa_pages-8712","18":"pa_publisher-penguin-books","19":"pa_readership-general-trade-code-k","21":"first","22":"onbackorder","23":"taxable","24":"shipping-taxable","25":"purchasable","26":"product-type-simple"},"yoast_head":"\n