Stone Blind (Hardback)
  • Stone Blind (Hardback)
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Stone Blind (Hardback)

(author)
£18.99
Hardback 384 Pages
Published: 15/09/2022
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Waterstones Says

From the classicist and author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar comes another bravura reimagining of Greek myth as the story of Medusa is transformed into a powerful meditation on mortality, betrayal and the cruel limits of beauty.

Shortlisted for The British Book Awards 2023 Fiction Book of the Year

Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction 2023

'So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our teeth, our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.'

Medusa is the only mortal in a family of gods. Growing up with her sisters, she quickly realizes that she is the only one who gets older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When, in Athene's temple, desire pushes Poseidon to commit the unforgivable, Medusa's mortal life is changed forever. Athene, furious at the sacrilege committed, directs her revenge on Medusa. The punishment is that she is turned into a Gorgon: sharp teeth, snakes for hair, and a gaze that will turn any living creature to stone. Appalled by her own reflection, Medusa can no longer look upon anything she loves without destroying it. She condemns herself to a life of solitude in the shadows to limit her murderous range.

That is, until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon...

This is the story of how a young woman became a monster. And how she was never really a monster at all.

Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 9781529061475
Number of pages: 384
Weight: 607 g
Dimensions: 241 x 164 x 38 mm


MEDIA REVIEWS

Witty, gripping, ruthless - Margaret Atwood via Twitter

Beautiful and moving - Neil Gaiman via Twitter

The rollicking narrative voice that energises Stone Blind . . . is a voice that feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom . . . The Gorgon’s head will take on a new and powerful resonance as a symbol of the way stories can be warped by time. Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable corrective. - The Observer

Stone Blind is an exceptionally powerful retelling of Medusa's story, an emotional gut punch of a novel. Haynes brilliantly pulls off the feat of seamlessly alternating humour and heartbreak, creating characters that stay with you long after the novel's end. It is a dazzling achievement - Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den trilogy

With this, her third novel based on ancient myth, [Haynes] has found a way of using all her classical erudition and her vivid sense of the ambiguous potency of the ancient stories, while being simultaneously very, very funny - Guardian

A fierce feminist exploration of female rage, written with wit and empathy. Haynes makes the classics brutally relevant, and we reckon this one is going to be huge - Glamour

It is no exaggeration to say that Haynes is the modern embodiment of the best of Homer. She is a proper, classic storyteller, whose linguistic skills and wit will have you hanging on every word - Radio Times

Stone Blind is inventive and playful . . . [and] very funny - Antonia Senior, The Times

Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood and Madeline Miller have all successfully picked at the seams of the traditionally male take on these fantastic tales. But Natalie Haynes’s genius, this time with Stone Blind, her third Greek myth novel, is to not just focus on the female experience of Greek myth but also to add zest, humour and more than a little mischief . . . The ride is gripping, funny and heartbreaking. Love, sorrow, adventure and humour - Stone Blind has it all - Metro

What makes a monster is the central question in Natalie Haynes’ wry, spry feminist take on the Medusa myth . . . an earthy, playful yet rage-filled upending of the Greek hero trope - Mail Online

With wit, humanity and extraordinary imagination, Haynes breathes life and meaning into myths as she has done so brilliantly before (most famously with A Thousand Ships). She also shows that monsters can be divine or mortal. Not all heroes wear capes – and not all villains have snakes - The i

Haynes’ clever, empathetic writing transforms Medusa from Gorgon into a girl, who’s a victim of the cruel machinations of the gods and of circumstance - Sarra Manning, Red Magazine

Natalie Haynes has made a contemporary classic out of a classic . . . and it should win prizes - Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch

There’s real tenderness in Haynes’s portrait of Medusa, a mortal abomination born into a family of divinities, and the efforts of her immortal Gorgon sisters to protect her from herself - Daisy Dunn, The Spectator

Haynes is [a] master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories - Telegraph

Haynes is the nation’s great muse - Adam Rutherford, The Week

Natalie Haynes is swiftly becoming this generation’s Mary Renault - Observer

With her trademark passion, wit and fierce feminism, Haynes gives much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War. Her thoughtful portraits will linger with you long after the book is finished - Madeline Miller on A Thousand Ships

Haynes is a rock-star mythologist - Washington Post on A Thousand Ships

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Dan - Clifton, Bristol.

“Brutal, devastating, addictive.”

This is Medusa’s story. And so much more.
Medusa is the only mortal among a family of gods. Growing up with her protective sisters, she soon realises that she is the only one who grows older, and with it her... More

Hardback edition
4 similar books recommended
Helpful? Upvote 50
KimG9

“Poor Medusa!”

I have struggled with how best to rate Stone Blind. On one hand I will happily follow Natalie's siren's call no matter the mythological topic. She can do no wrong in my book and I love her for it. With... More

Hardback edition
8 similar books recommended
Helpful? Upvote 50

“Righting the wrongs against Medusa”

I loved a Thousand Ships and Children of Jocasta so was really keen to find out how Medusa’s story would be told. I think I particularly relish Natalie Haynes’s books just that bit more than, say, Pat Barker’s because... More

Hardback edition
Helpful? Upvote 44

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