Glorious Exploits is a semi-unhinged historical fiction novel about two dudes living in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War who decide they're going to take advantage of the Athenian prisoners of war currently being kept in their town's quarry in order to put on a production of Euripides's Medea, a super cheerful play about child murder.

Two things drew me to this: that cover (I mean . . .) And the fact that it was set on Sicily, the home of my ancestors. For all I know, one of these two dudes is the reason I'm alive! Or someone like him, anyway. Also, it sounded ridiculous, and indeed it was! Did I mention that the author is Irish and the Sicilian characters talk in Irish vernacular?

I think I would have rated this higher had I done the audiobook, as I did have a bit of a hard time keeping my attention on the e-book, but this is a funny and surprisingly hard-hitting book that executes a very weird premise with skill.

[3.5 stars, rounded up]

This was a delightful and fascinating read. Well-written. I was impressed with the mix of humor and seriousness. This book is going to be well regarded for quite some time to come.

This was something very unique, and I am a bit remiss that I read it under the throes of illness because I don't think I fully understood what was going on. It is a historical fiction about the Peloponnesian war told in modern Irish dialect, and I wish I could study this in a classroom. I know there are so many layers to it that my mind cannot grasp. I think I will read it four more times before I can glean the complete meaning. Everyone read this!

I thought I would absolutely love this, but in the end I walked away feeling that it was…okay.

The concept behind this one is great, and in part the author really pulls it off. It’s a terrifically original idea and it successfully blends a smartly zany, high-concept idea with the brutal realities of life and war in Ancient Greece.

Where the book is wide of the mark a bit was in its humor, which misses more than it hits, and in the experimental attempt to infuse modern dialogue and verbiage into the setting, which didn’t work at all.

I tend to find anachronistic language to be self-indulgent on the part of the author more often than not, and it rarely fails to connect the story to a modern audience. And it’s tough to understand why anyone thinks it needs to. Why are any of us reading this if not for an interest in the time period in which it’s set? The subject matter doesn’t become more readable or relatable by adding words like “puke,” it just becomes less authentic.

In all it’s a good story, but the experimental language isn’t a success here.

Absolutely hilarious and extremely well written. I got recommended this book by my Euripidian writing professor and I’m so glad I got a chance to read an ARC! Thank you so much to the publisher for granting my request.

Serious props to whoever came up with the irresistible cover of Glorious Exploits, the debut novel from Irish-Libyan writer Ferdia Lennon, because it perfectly encapsulates this strange, appealing novel: Classic, yet full of anachronism.

The story takes place amid the Peloponnesian war, after Athens has failed to conquer Syracuse and Sicily and Athenian prisoners are kept in a quarry outside the city and left to starve. Two lowly potters, Lambo and Gelon, spot an opportunity to put on a play by the great Athenian playwright Euripides, with prisoners who, from Athens, must be true actors. They find a financier, they feed the prisoners, they put on a play.

Much will be (rightfully) say about how Lennon’s ancients speak as though they live in a working class Dublin neighborhood, as it’s the contrast between the old and the new that feels at once strange and yet entirely logical.

The dramatis personae of the story are the lowest of Syracusan society - working poor, slaves, prisoners – yet the pathos of their relationships elevates it to something more. There’s love, humor, absolute and horrifying loss and death. To say more is to give away what little plot there is. It’s art for art’s sake, but also art that bridges the chasms between bitter enemies.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 4.5 stars rounded up

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this excellent novel I found myself nearly constantly bracing for impact. It's a fast moving, highly readable, beautifully written story that it took me ages to finish, because I couldn't handle the suspense at all. Glorious Exploits is an all-too successful combination of two world-class tragic genres (Greek tragedy and Irish comitragedy), and I was so stressed out waiting for each additional sandal to drop. I stopped several times in the middle of extremely suspenseful, climactic, and beautiful passages to like, put this book down and distract myself with other books. One time I put this down and read a different book that was <em>like a thousand pages long</em>. But nothing I did could reduce its power! It's so frightfully effective! Every time I picked it up I was <em>right back in it</em>, laughing and wondering and feeling a horribly renewed dread. I was impressed with how often I had been bracing myself for entirely the wrong thing—you might think anything that could go wrong would, but no! Some things go all too right! You might think the worst possible thing that could happen, <em>definitely</em> would, in every case, but in fact there is no way to know which level of awful, or in fact sublime, anything is going to be! Unpredictable, beautiful. One of the best books of the year.

Well written but subject-wise I fear only a particular type of reader with a deep interest in mythology will truly enjoy the intellect and humor the writing brings to this concept. Almost too clever for it's own good; I had trouble keeping interest as the quirkiness of the task quickly wore off and it became a chore rather than a pleasure to keep reading. Quite thrilled with the quality of writing that UEA alumni are producing; looking forward to an easier story for the mainstream to grasp.

What a delight! Funny, witty, unique, brutal; paying tribute to story and history and the history of how we tell stories! Would definitely recommend.

Time is 412 BC, place Syracuse. The Athenians just invaded Syracuse and lost. There were some Athenians captured. They are left in quarry to starve and die. Two friends who are unemployed potters, go to quarry to feed the prisoners for reciting poetry. This snowballs into rehearsing for play. The friends run around the town making this happen.

Graft Irish brogue onto ancient Syracusan and Athenian combatants, set the story in the aftermath of the Athenian defeat at Syracuse with its famously weird resolution to the problem the Syracusans had with what to do with the POWs, and make a buddy comedy out of it.

Of COURSE I asked for this book!

The titanic tragedies unfolding in today’s world are nothing new. The sheer number of us alive on Earth compared to three thousand...heck, three hundred...years ago means there are higher head counts in the disasters, but not greater or even equal proportions of the population. The scale of Athens’s humiliation, and her losses, in the failed imperial project that included her attempt at conquering Syracuse, rivals the British losses in World War I. An entire generation gone. The scale of democracy’s failings, and this imperial expansionist war was directly down to a democratic vote in Athens, has always been epic. After all, no government is one tiny bit better than its people force it to be.

So Gelon and Lampo get the historically accurate job of dealing with the horribly immiserated prisoners chucked down into the quarry to die. The solution has not changed. We get to see it all from the viewpoints of the two men who more or less came up with the solution, though. Gelon is sort of a sad soul, a man who is aware of and burdened by awareness of, the pointlessness of existence. Does any of this really matter, on can hear Gelon wondering inside himself. He finds no joy in the deaths the Athenians are doomed to, especially since it means he...and the world, of course...won’t get to hear the latest Euripides hit The Trojan Women. Because of course Gelon is all about the tragedian Euripides.

Lampo...get it?...finds light gleaming in all darknesses, Lampo thinks the Athenians must be good for something...and entertaining the Syracusans with the latest and greatest plays from cultural hub Athens is just the ticket. The men overhear the Athenians lightening ther last hours with dialogue from the current Athenian version of the West End/Broadway season, and hey presto a solution to the awful moral conundrum of just letting human beings die in misery comes. Lampo is the instigator of the full cast revival of the play, and convinces the angry Syracusans...even the guy with the club who’s taking revenge for his lost sons by killing every Athenian he possibly can...to set aside their hatred and listen to this brand-new play from the cultural capital of the world.

Setting aside the utter weirdness of this story’s factual reality...we know it really happened...this could have been a retelling of the events that went heavy on Message, bearing down hard on whichever piece caught Author Ferdia’s fancy. Instead he lets the reader select the message they want from the many on offer. Start with an Irish voice telling, in English, a tale of a violently failed colonial enterprise. I trust I do not need to go too far on that one to bring it into focus for you. Move to the unemployed potters, those craftworkers whose job it is to take dirt and turn it into useful and often beautiful things for people to benefit from, who see the utility and the necessity for using these aggressors for some kind of benefit to those they harmed. A tale, then, of restitution, never a bad thing to bring into the modern world. But then look again: the actors are there, able and ready to do their jobs, but unnoticed until summoned into being as actors by capitalist producers, who in case this parallel to the modern world slid past you, make no effort whatever to compensate the creator of the play they are producing. And the actors making the play are, it should not go unremarked on, living below the poverty level and thus are ready to do anything to stay alive.

And, should all that be more than you want to deal with in your present mood, this short novel can simply and pleasurably entertain you with its surreal blend of fact, fiction, and Aristophanes-level multilayered comedy.

Laugh along. Think deeply. Enjoy the music. You pick, you are the one who makes this read...all Author Ferdia did was find the story for you. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

What a hoot! I can't imagine how this was pitched first to an agent and then to a publisher because it's an unlikely one to say the least. Know that you'll be reading in modern Irish vernacular (it helps to know the slang) and that it's set in ancient days. There's a play, there's actors. there's war, there's affection, there's so much going on that you might feel overwhelmed a bit but at root this is just a darn good read. Thanks to edelweiss for the ARC. This should have broader appeal than the blurb (which might intimidate some readers) would suggest.

"Glorious Exploits" is about two friends, Gelon and Lampo who gather Athenian prisoners to put on a play in the local quarry. It is an old tale told in a contemporary voice, which was jarring at first but the sooner you accept it the sooner you'll love this story!

I would recommend this book to ages 18 and up to readers who enjoy fun books with a little more literary spice.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this story for us readers.

I'm not sure how the author made a novel about the Peloponnesian War, written in contemporary Irish prose, be thought-provoking, heart-wrenching, and hilarious--but he does it! This might be my favorite book of 2024.

In Syracuse, Athenians are held prisoner after their disastrous attempt to invade Syracuse. Two unemployed Syracusans decide to put on plays by Euripides ("Medea" and "The Trojan Women") in the prison camp, with the Athenians in the starring roles. Their scheme is both ridiculous and endearing, and they grow closer to their Athenian prisoner "friends"-- who are also former mortal enemies. There is interesting reflection on and interpretation of Euripides' "Medea" and "Trojan Women," superb tragedies that mirror the themes of "Glorious Exploits." The main characters, two average guys, are also relatable and quite funny, and so the heavier aspects of the book are lightened. I grew to love them and their ridiculous plan to put on a showcase of Euripides in a prison camp.

I LOVED this book and can't believe it's a debut! Thank you for the ARC, and I look forward to more from this author.

This... this was something. It took me a minute to get into the vibe of it, but I think that was more a me thing because I really enjoyed the vibes from this. This book was funny but also sort of had its deeper moments?! I finished this almost a week ago and I still keep thinking about it. I can't wait to read more from this author.

This novel follows two Spartans, Gelon and Lampo, on their journey in Sicily to direct a Euripidian play with captive Athenians as their actors. (yes it sounds wild when you put it straight but the story is quite convincing in it’s world building!)

I got through one third of this book. It was playfully written and super unique but was not working for me. I don’t love crude humor and the Irish toned prose style didn’t work for me. I didn’t connect with the male main characters.

I think this WOULD work for someone who loves stories about the Peloponnesian War and won’t mind the unconventional, direct tone. It is fast paced and imaginative in how it seeks to connect to the reader on a human level.

Thank you NetGalley and Henry Hold and Co. for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Unemployed potters Lampo and Gelon want to put on a play by Euripides. The only problem is they want their actors to be the imprisoned Athenian soldiers being held in the quarry in Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War.

This book was such a delight! It is funny and smart and absurd and heartbreaking, and I appreciated its exploration of themes such as war, art, humanity, and morality. It was fun to be in the head of Lampo, who is truly Just Some Guy, as he fumbles his way through being a director. Lennon’s prose is easy to read and the mix of comedy and horrors of war are blended so well (which I admit is a strange sentiment but… trust me). All in all, it’s a banger.

This one was so clever, and a great debut from Ferdia Lennon!! One of the most distinguished aspects of this book is the Irish dialect; it felt so authentic and fresh and unlike anything else I've read. I can't wait to see what else Ferdia Lennon has in store. Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt for this title!

I thought that I was a little bit burned out on all things Ancient Greece which I have seen everywhere in the last few years. However, the googly eyes on the cover made me suspect that this one would be a little bit different.
I absolutely loved this book! It asks the readers to think about some heavy issues like the cost of war and the meaning of our existence, but it is also about the value of art and friendship. It is infused with dark humor, that absolutely cracked me up.
I can't wait to buy my own copy!

What a book -- I am completely floored!

The book opens with two best friends Lampo and Gelon, unemployed potters in Syracuse, Sicily, during the Peloponnesian War. It is two years after the Syracusans defeated the invading forces from Athens, and thousands of surviving Athenians are being held as prisoners of war in an old rat-infested quarry, emaciated with hunger. It's in this setting that Gelon has an idea: as big fans of the Athenian playwright Euripides, they can use the captives as actors to put on a play -- and Gelon and Lampo will be the directors.

This was part Waiting for Godot, part Greek tragedy, with a little Waiting for Guffman thrown in for good measure. It was funny at times, devastating at others. Though set in the 400s BC, it had a modern Irish tone that worked better than I'd expected, and added to the absurdism.

The book prompts the reader to consider a number of questions about life and meaning and existence, exploring morality in the aftermath of war and tragedy. It's about friendship, art, and love, as well as loss, grief, and human atrocity. It doesn't ultimately give the reader any answers, but poses big questions.

The quality of the writing was also striking. Mixed in with the absurdism and darkness were passages that took my breath away, when the narrator would have a moment of insight or clarity about the world around him. The setting was immersive and I could see myself getting jostled in the Syracusan market, or on the salty beach, or in the quarry with rats scurrying over my feet.

And of course, the characters themselves will truly stay with me. Not just Gelon and Lampo, but Lyra the slave, Paches the Athenian actor, the collector from the tin isles, and even the tavern owner and fishermen and traders in the market -- everyone was unique, memorable, and contributed in their own way to the discussion of morality in the aftermath of war.

5 stars 🌟

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry & Holt Company for this ARC to read and review.