Book Synopsis:
Ancient Sicily. 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?
My Review:
Glorious Exploits is an intriguing historical novel that manages to be funny but heart breaking at the same time.
The story is told from the point of view of Lampo who’s a happy, go lucky character who I didn’t particularly warm to as some of his antics kept making me cringe. He always seemed to try his best but somehow always managed to say the wrong thing or put his foot in it somehow which was endearing at times but deeply frustrating in others. His friendship with the likeable Gelon was interesting to follow and I enjoyed seeing how the friendship worked when the two were so different from each other.
I didn’t know anything about this period of history, so I enjoyed learning more about it throughout the book. It was fascinating to see what life was like in Ancient Sicily and how the different classes of people lived. I especially loved hearing about the theatre shop and seeing how the different props were made in this time. It was poignant to learn more about the treatment of slaves in this period, especially as we learn the background of a few of the slaves and get a glimpse into what their lives were like before. The treatment of the Athenians was also sad to witness, especially as we see how much they had worsened over the time of the story. I really felt for them and wished I could somehow rescue them all.
Overall, I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand I enjoyed the time period and found it interesting to follow Lampo as he tries to put on his play in the quarry. However, on the other hand I found the story quite sad and perhaps a little disjointed at times. The ending was interesting, and I found it quite sad to discover how everything had worked out for the characters. It was a bit confusing at times and I had to reread a few pages until I understood what was going on. I didn’t understand the last few pages until we discussed it with the book group but as everyone else had got it apart from me, I think it was just me being a bit daft.
If you are a fan of unique, gripping and realistic historical fiction then I think you will enjoy this book.
About The Author:
Ferdia Lennon was born and raised in Dublin. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. Glorious Exploits is his first novel. A Sunday Times bestseller, it was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and was the winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024 and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son.
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