Yet Delphi is not just a novel about Covid; it’s also about how a given historical moment such as the pandemic can connect us to the past and to the universal. The lines that Pollard draws between then and now are not always subtle (“Domestic violence is on the rise. Did you know Hercules actually killed his family?”), but if you don’t like that one, there’ll be another along in a minute. This is a hungry book, looking everywhere and seeing everything, jumping from Hilma af Klint’s Altarpiece No 1 to Lizzo’s Juice in consecutive sentences.

I have devoured this book in one sitting. Once I was pulled in, I couldn’t put it down. I was desperate to find out what was going on. Also, I didn’t want this books to end.

Everything about this book has been brilliant. I absolutely loved getting between the covers of this. This was everything I hoped for and so much more. This is a book which should be on everyone’s radar.

I absolutely recommend this book to other readers.

I thought the concept was really interesting but turns out I'm just not ready to read covid-era novels yet.

I’m a big fan of Greek myth retellings and thought this was up there with the best! The real Delphi has always fascinated me and I was excited to read such a good story about the mysterious goings on there.

“I am sick of the future. Up to here with the future. I don’t want anything to do with it; don’t want it near me”

My thanks to Penguin Group U.K. Fig Tree for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Delphi’ by Clare Pollard. It was published in July 2022. My apologies for the late feedback. After publication I purchased its ebook and unabridged audiobook editions and did a combined read/listen

The narrator of this novel is a university classics lecturer who in 2020 is undertaking research for a book about prophecy in the ancient world. Indeed, the chapter titles each reference a different type of divination with a brief description of each.

Of course, as it is early 2020 the pandemic is about to create challenges for the characters as they seek to navigate the tightening grip of lockdown. Add to this her marriage is in crisis and her ten-year-old son seems more and more unreachable.

As a result, she becomes increasingly fixated on forms of divination and prediction: consulting online psychics, tea leaves, tarot cards, the I Ching and the like seeking to make bargains to ensure her future. She also comments on key events including the USA general election (“Apollo says / I say: a leader will lose but refuse to leave.”).

I felt that ‘Delphi’ was a witty, philosophical take on the Covid-19 pandemic told from the perspective of its narrator within the context of references to divination, the classics, and Greek mythology.

Clare Pollard has a crisp, economic writing style and despite the novel’s modest length she manages to include details of many kinds of divination, responses to the pandemic, and its protagonist’s experiences as she seeks to reconnect to her husband and son.

Overall, I found ‘Delphi’ a gem of a novel - intelligent and well written, combining drama and comedy with a sense of the timeless as well as a snapshot of a certain point in recent world history. I feel that it is the kind of novel that will likely appeal to reading groups as it’s a quick, engaging read and offers plenty of scope for discussion.

i wanted to find this to be an engaging read but there was something about it that was forced, perhaps the tone, or the way the subject matter is handled.

Pollard has created a fascinating concept with the structure of her narrative. In which a Classics professor navigates the Covid lockdowns through the many different types of ancient prophecy. The way she mixes life events with the academic subject-matter and the human drive to categorise reminded me somewhat of In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, where the writer explores an abusive relationship through the tropes of fairy tales. Unfortunately, this work didn’t work for me as well. The role of the tortured, cheating academic has been done to death, so much so that I now tend to avoid novels with middle-aged academics and their mid-life, mid-career crises as well as ones with young, PhD protagonists who can’t finish their theses. There is a surprising lack of analysis despite the academic trappings and the meandering ruminations never seem to reach a conclusion beyond doom and the impossibility of predicting the future. The sudden and shocking event towards the end was underdeveloped and felt distasteful because of it. Was it simply to hammer home the point that we never know what is coming? That no matter which method we use we can’t understand the future? That so often these events are sudden and shocking? Perhaps but the way it was done, and left until the very last pages just didn’t work for me.

The book follows a Classics lecturer through the COVID-19 pandemic and how she copes with the struggles of family life through this time. I loved the little snippets of Ancient Greek mythology, how they relate to the current day issues and you could tell she’s definitely knowledgeable on the subject. The chapters were short and snappy so u found myself flying through the book, able to just pick it up and put it down throughout the day.
I struggle to get into books about the pandemic as it’s still a prevalent issue that I kind of wish I could just switch off in my brain, but I did enjoy the book and would read more by this author as I loved the writing style!

I’m very grateful to have received this as an ARC from NetGalley

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ARC to review. I really wanted to love this book because I adore Greek Mythology, and as a Classics student I find this rewrites fascinating, but I couldn't get into it.

This was an interesting read in that it throws you back into what it was actually like to be in lockdown day after day, as a deeply abnormal situation became totally normalised. I enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere. It captures it remarkably well. All this interlinked with a story of research into prophecy.

This is in many ways a very good novel, well written and quite poetic in parts, well constructed and clever. The only issue for me is that while I enjoyed reading it, it had no lasting impact at all. I struggle even to remember reading it. Hence just 3 stars.

Following a classics lecturer through the covid pandemic, this novel mixes narrative set in the modern day with flashbacks to the ancient oracle.
Her musings on the pandemic were, for me, the slowest part of the book and -if I'm honest- it's probably because it's all too familiar for me right now. That aside, the writing style is beautiful (Pollard is a poet, after all) and the parts about the ancient oracle wer both well-researched and informative - as a Classics major, I can vouch for that fully! Overall, I think it may be too soon for a lot of people to revisit the pandemic - but if you fancy it, definitely give this one a try.

Covid19 and classical Greek myth: what a brilliant, potent combination!
Our narrator is a classics lecturer, wife and mother who is faced with the chaos and uncertainty of the pandemic. The novel depicts the sheer toil of “keeping on keeping on” in an unsettled world and highlights the allure of prophecy as a way of predicting the future and allaying fear.
It’s beautifully written, with lots to think about - it certainly echoed my feelings of lockdown dread. A fantastic read.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

This is the first novel I have read set during the pandemic and I'm not entirely sure I was ready for it! It's an engaging read and I enjoyed the writing which is intelligent and flows easily. I think it might be a book I come back to in the future and re-read as there were so many interesting moments of reflection about the pandemic and the future that I might be able to appreciate more once there is some distance from the actual events.

With thanks to NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I didn’t know what to expect when I started Delphi. Fairly quickly I had to check whether it was fiction or nonfiction. It is fiction, the narrator is fictional even if it is effectively a diary of Covid-19 in the UK. It’s very middle-class liberal, very individualistic (mother, wife, university staff member). Yet what I did enjoy were the snippets of classics stories, of prophecy and Greek legends around a life falling apart at a specific moment in history. The narrator may not have always been likeable but she was believable and rang frustratingly true to experience. The end speeds up. Not sure whether this was the time to publish though - possibly too early and the story coming through is overshadowed by the pandemic as much as exists because of it.

I started out thinking I was going to struggle to get into this novel, but it soon drew me in completely. It is the best depiction of the Covid years that I have come across to date. It flawlessly captures the claustrophobia, the surreal sense of detachment from family although we were physically together like never before, the sheer strangeness with which we viewed the news, the odd ways we tried to protect ourselves psychologically.

The narrator is a classicist trying to write a book about the Delphi oracle in ancient Greece. As the pandemic starts and progresses, we see through her eyes the lockdowns, working from home at the kitchen table, the solemn daily briefings, the PPE shambles, the fear at the beginning mutating into weariness and bending the rules, and the increasing sense of the surreal as time wears on. She copes by becoming more and more detached from her husband, and more immersed in the esoterics of the various ways of predicting the future, as if by so doing she can ward off the terror that the pandemic inspired in most of us.

As a story of a human trying to ward off the surrounding chaos and uncertainty, this is spot on. I found myself completely entering into the complexity of the feelings and reactions of the narrator, and thinking, 'yes, this is exactly how the early months were'.

All of the above makes it sound heavy, but it is in fact a very readable book though not one to rush or skim through. It is a short novel, and well worth your time.

There's so much to say about this book. It's the description of a time of our life but also of how the future is unpredictable and losing focus on the present can bring disaster.
Claire is a fascinating character, the author did an excellent job in describing the age of Covid.
Thought provoking, entertaining.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Absolutely loved this book. Right up my street. It mixed Greek myths with the Covid lockdown. Told from the point of view from an ever worrying mum - who's name I thought I must have missed - but turns out she is un-named, living through lockdown along with her husband Jason and son Xander.

The book is a magical mixture of Greek myths, prophecy's, tarots and conspiracies and everyday observations. I really loved that it intertwined the old with new world, making it very relevant today.

The chapters were short and sharp. I am a big Greek myth fan so found all the background to them very interesting. I liked how she compared Cassandra to people online now warning against global warming; everyone knows but no one listens. I really enjoyed her writing style.

Favourite lines : Prediction by data is humanity's most accurate phopheric system but can't cope with individuals - which is a big problem in todays world

Also when she said - if her husband was to have an affair, she could forgive the sex but not the time

It seems the narrator of the story needs and wants reassurance and almost someone or something to tell her what to do with her life and this is perhaps why a lot of people look for signs and coincidences in their life

I will be recommending this book to others and looking out for more on this author

Clare Pollard is an author new to me. I understand that she has published books of poetry & you can clearly see this in her writing.

I wasn’t really sure about what was I embarking upon when I picked up Delphi – that’s often in common with all the books I read as I don’t read that much about them in advance.

I wasn’t prepared for how real a read this is. It felt I was living the life of the main character of the book as she struggled through the pandemic.

I haven’t read many books where you are fully immersed in the pandemic world of the UK – lots of which to be honest I have tried to blank out. And I’m not entirely sure being taken back there was an experience that I wanted So if you read Delphi you have to be prepared to relive Covid times.

The narrator is a classics scholar who is researching prophecy in the Ancient World. And if you want to understand the multitudinous things that can be used to create prophesies - boy is this the book for you!

Taking the academic detail aside, this is an immersive deep dive into the life of a woman navigating: the suffocating grip of lockdown; her marriage tumbling into a downward spiral; & a growing distance from their ten-year-old son. With all of this going on, & her mind filled with her research studies, she becomes obsessed with predicting the future. Thus distracted she fails to see what is happening under her nose.

I thought the writing within this novel was quite unique. It did feel like reportage. The protagonist & her life felt so real. I wonder if future beings will understand what Covid wrought. To understand it they could do worse than read this book. This is probably one of the first great novels of this unfathomable period in history.

Well worth a read.

I’m a huge fan of the author’s work as a poet so couldn’t wait to read Delphi. I had a great time reading this. It’s a short read but so much happens it felt much longer. I loved all the references to the ancient world and to be honest I’d have been happy to spend a lot more time there. I liked how each chapter is headed a different type of ancient prophecy and the chapter relates ancient ideas and beliefs to the modern world. This works really well. This is a joy to read.

I binged this book in under 24hrs. Our protagonist is a classics lecturer, wife and mother. Using different concepts of prophecy and classics references as narrative tools, we follow her into and out of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have to say, all other books I've read which even touch on the pandemic have given me the ick, but not this one. Delphi is full of wit and laugh out loud charm whist also covering the toughest part of many of our lives with realism and heart wrenching relatability. Having been looking after a group of teenagers throughout the pandemic and beyond, the reference to the song 'Dum Ways to Die' was a bit of a matrix moment. This book, driven by themes of coincidence vs prophecy, prediction and foretelling, was somehow relating much of my own experience of the pandemic back to me, even down to the finest detail. I would highly recommend it.
TW pandemic, self injury, suicide