Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon

Hey Folks!

This one seems like a dark humor take about the Peloponnesian War:

"On the island of Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, the Syracusans have figured out what to do with the surviving Athenians who had the gall to invade their city: they’ve herded the sorry prisoners of war into a rock quarry and left them to rot. Looking for a way to pass the time, Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters with a soft spot for poetry and drink, head down into the quarry to feed the Athenians if, and only if, they can manage a few choice lines from their great playwright Euripides. Before long, the two mates hatch a plan to direct a full-blown production of Medea. After all, you can hate the people but love their art. But as opening night approaches, what started as a lark quickly sets in motion a series of extraordinary events, and our wayward heroes begin to realize that staging a play can be as dangerous as fighting a war, with all sorts of risks to life, limb, and friendship.

Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving, Glorious Exploits is an unforgettable ode to the power of art in a time of war, brotherhood in a time of enmity, and human will throughout the ages."

Glorious Exploits: A Novel by Ferdia Lennon, Paperback | Barnes & Noble®

“A stunning (and stunningly fun) meditation on companionship, humanity and the role of performance in keeping us all afloat. . . . In a contemporary moment of war, Lennon’s sharp eye for the barbarism that can accompany society’s theatrical coping mechanisms feels almost too relevant . . . [A] thrilling and heartbreaking debut novel.”
—Talya Zax, The Washington Post

“Remarkable . . . Glorious Exploits owes its emotional impact to the clear-eyed skepticism that makes its hopefulness hard-won . . . Lennon’s artistry allows him, without being naive or pious, to make the case for art.”
—Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books

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