Glorious Exploits

Common card · No. 359376

Glorious Exploits is a 2024 historical fiction novel by the Irish writer Ferdia Lennon. His debut novel, it is principally set in Syracuse in 412 BC, after the defeat of the Athenian expedition to Sicily during the Peloponnesian War. It follows Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters who recruit Athenian prisoners held in the city's quarries to perform plays by Euripides. Lampo narrates most of the novel in a modern Irish vernacular that combines comic dialogue with depictions of imprisonment and the consequences of war. Lennon based the premise on Plutarch's account that some Athenian captives survived by reciting Euripides to Sicilians. He spent about seven years writing the novel and researched it through ancient texts and visits to Greece and Sicily. Fig Tree published the first edition in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 18 January 2024; Henry Holt and Company released the American edition on 26 March. Glorious Exploits received positive reviews from critics, who often praised Lennon...

Read on Wikipedia