Glorious Exploits - Ferdia Lennon

Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover.

Enter LAMPO: lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction.

Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads. 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.

And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry. 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. What could possibly go wrong?

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER. WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024. WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024. SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024. LONGLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE. LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE. A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME. A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK. PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE IRISH TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TLS