Set in the Sicily of 412 BC, Lennon's at once riotously funny and incredibly moving novel finds two locals and a bunch of captured Athenian soldiers staging two of Euripides’ greatest tragedies in a quarry.
Shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2024
Waterstones Fiction Book of the Month for August 2024
Shortlisted for the Books Are My Bag Awards 2024
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize 2024
Shortlisted for the Nero Debut Fiction Award 2024
Shortlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize 2025
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?
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
ISBN: 9780241998007
Number of pages: 288
Weight: 204 g
Dimensions: 198 x 129 x 17 mm
One of the most original and brilliant Irish debuts in years - Irish Times
'The debut novelist to watch ... Remarkable ... This debut is entertaining, vivid, original – and has a huge amount of fun turning the genre on its head ... The premise is irresistible ... Terrific ... A novel to be gulped down' - The i
Bold and totally unexpected, I loved this book. A brilliant novel about friendship, the healing power of art, and why we must fight for our dreams. I was hooked from the first page - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain
Immensely likeable ... Raucously funny ... The writing is beautifully controlled - The Observer
Brilliant ... I love contemporary Irish fiction and Greek tragedy, so how wonderful to find a novel where they are brilliantly paired. It is as hilarious, moving, and profound as promised - Rebecca F. Kuang, author of Yellowface
As thrilling for me as the first time I picked up a Kevin Barry novel. Glorious Exploits is exuberant, funny, lyrical and profoundly moving. It is, quite simply, a rare beauty - Sarah Winman, author of Still Life
Glorious Exploits stinks of misery, despair, love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph. It’s a novel thick with the stuff of the Classics, in other words. A delicious treat of a read. I loved it - Jon McGregor
In At Swims-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien gave us cowboys riding through Dublin. Now, Ferdia Lennon gives us modern-day Dubliners living among the ancient Greeks. This is a very special, very clever, very entertaining novel - Roddy Doyle
One of the best debut novels of the year – it even received an award saying so – this is a ridiculously fun book…It's a poignant story about war, art, and friendship, while also being very funny - iPaper – The 30 best books for Christmas 2024
Funny, thoughtful, moving, brilliant - Nick Laird, Irish Sunday Independent
Oh my gosh I loved this book. I picked it up expecting a little light entertainment and, within a couple of pages, was overwhelmed by how brutal and humane it was. Taking its starting point as the disastrous invasion... More
A brilliant debut novel by Ferdia Lennon, Glorious Exploits it's a beautiful, funny and heartbreaking tale about how powerful art is and how it connects us, no matter how many things set us apart. As brutal as it... More
Wow wow wow.
Thank you Netgalley and Penguin Fig Tree for allowing me to read this proof of Glorious Exploits because I think you may have just spoiled 2024 for the rest of my TBR. I’m not sure anyone else will...
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