Informationen zum Autor FERDIA LENNON was born and raised in Dublin. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. Glorious Exploits is his first novel. A Sunday Times bestseller, it was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and was the winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son. Klappentext THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024 WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024 SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024 LONGLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2025 A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE IRISH TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TLS 'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times 'Bold and totally unexpected ... I was hooked from the first page' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain 'Brilliant ... Hilarious, moving, and profound' R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: feckless, jobless, in need of a distraction. Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads. They're fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost: they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food. And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry. It's audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life - love, friendship, art itself - it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of. What could possibly go wrong? 'Fierce, funny, fast-paced ... Brings the ancient world roaring to life' Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre 'Love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph ... A delicious treat of a read. I loved it' Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand Sunday Times bestseller, August 2024 Zusammenfassung So Gelon says to me, 'Let's go down and feed the Athenians. The weather's perfect for feeding Athenians.' It's 412 BC, and Athens' invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected and hanging on by the slimmest of threads. Lampo and Gelon are local potters, young men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. With not much to fill their time, they take to visiting the nearby quarry, where they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides in return for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives. And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry. A proper performance to be sung of down the ages. Because after all, you can hate the Athenians for invading your territory, but still love their poetry. But as the performance draws near and the audacity of their enterprise dawns on them, it becomes difficult to distinguish between enemies and friends. And Lampo, whose ambitions have never stretched beyond having enough coin for the next jug of wine, finds his aspirations elevated, his heart entangled and his courage tested in ways he could never have imagined. Glorious Exploits is an exhilarating and fiercely original story of brotherhood, war and art; and - in the face of the Gods' apparent indifference - of daring to dream of someth...

Autorentext
FERDIA LENNON was born and raised in Dublin. He holds a BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia. Glorious Exploits is his first novel. A Sunday Times bestseller, it was adapted for BBC Radio 4 and was the winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2024. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son.

Klappentext

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024
WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024
LONGLISTED FOR THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD 2025
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME
A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK
PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE IRISH TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TLS

*'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times*

'Bold and totally unexpected ... I was hooked from the first page' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

'Brilliant ... Hilarious, moving, and profound' R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface**

Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON: visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO: feckless, jobless, in need of a distraction.

Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads.

They're fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost: they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food.

And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry.

It's audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life - love, friendship, art itself - it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of.

What could possibly go wrong?

*'Fierce, funny, fast-paced ... Brings the ancient world roaring to life' Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre*

'Love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph ... A delicious treat of a read. I loved it' Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand**

Sunday Times bestseller, August 2024

Zusammenfassung

An exhilarating, fiercely original story of brotherhood, war and art, and of daring to dream of something bigger than ourselves.

'Bold and totally unexpected, I loved this book' Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

'A very special, very clever, very entertaining novel' Roddy Doyle, author of Paddy Clarke, Ha Ha Ha

It's 412 BC, and Athens' invasion of Sicily has failed catastrophically. Thousands of Athenian soldiers are held captive in the quarries of Syracuse, starving, dejected, and hanging on by the slimmest of threads.

Lampo and Gelon are local potters, young men with no work and barely two obols to rub together. When they take to visiting the nearby quarry, they discover prisoners who will, in desperation, recite lines from the plays of Euripides for scraps of bread and a scattering of olives.

And so an idea is born: the men will put on Medea in the quarry. A proper performance to be sung of down the ages. Because after all, you can hate the Athenians for invading your territory, but still love their poetry.

But as the audacity of their enterprise dawns on them, it becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish between enemies and friends. As the performance draws near, the men will find their courage tested in ways they could never have imagined ...

'Madly ambitious, cathartic like all great tragedy, but shockingly funny too, Ferdia Lennon's outstandingly original début is just glorious' Emma Donoghue, author of Room