t was so boring. It kept meandering on and on and I kept waiting for it to get better and it never did. One would think that with such an interesting setting that it would be easy to draw the reader in. That is usually how I have felt about books with a setting in antiquity but I did not feel that way about this one. The writing was odd and the dialogue felt stiff and not at all natural. But more than anything I just did not vibe with the basic plot of the book.

This book was an absolute masterpiece. Right away the storytelling with an Irish voice in an ancient Sicilian setting made the story, for me, so approachable. A modern Greek tragedy filled with characters seeking beauty in darkness, forging bonds least expected, love, loss, war, the theatre. I was a sniveling mess by the last chapter with how beautifully full-circle the story came. This is a book that will stick with me forever.

Thanks to Henry Holt and Co and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

I had little idea as to what to expect when I was approved for this ARC of Ferdia Lennon's 'Glorious Exploits' but, as an Irishman with a long-standing interest in the classics, the description tickled my fancy.

I'm so glad I requested and was approved. This novel is just fantastic. It's so original in its subject matter and - at a time when in films and on TV every ancient people have a posh English accent - the use of the modern Irish use of the English language is refreshing, funny, and madly appropriate.

During the Peloponnesian Wars - Syracuse ascendant over Athens - two boozy, unemployed potters decide to stage two plays by Euripides in a penal quarry acted by the doomed Athenian prisoners who populated and supported by a handful of bereaved children. What could possibly go wrong?

This novel brings the reader originality, humor, emotion, a hard look at both sides of a war, humanity, and friendship.

I hope 'Glorious Exploits0 is a raging success and I hope we see it on TV some day, it would be amazing.

Bravo.

I absolutely loved this story. Very entertaining, and one the top books I’ve read this year.

It’s friendship, dreams, and humanity in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War, in Syracuse.
Lampo and Gelon are best mates and unemployed potters who love their wine. Gelon loves Euripides and is worried Syracusians won’t be able to see one of his plays. Gelon decides to direct Medea and Trojan War with the Athenian prisoners in the quarry. Lampo is along for the ride and narrates the story in a modern Irish accent. Lampo is audacious, brazen and cheeky and that’s why we fall in love with him.

Thank you @netgalley and @henryholtbooks for the eARC.

This book is clever. I’m trying to read outside my preferred genre and this did not disappoint.

We follow Lampo who is always telling tall tales about himself, his friend loves the theater/hearing stories. Their investor is a collector of objects from story.

The story brings all the threads together to show us that … “The world a wounded thing that can only be healed by a story.”
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Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own