Glorious Exploits A Novel

<p><b>Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction</b><br><b>Winner of the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize</b><br><b>Winner of the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award</b><b><br>Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction</b><br><b>Shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year by the Irish Book Awards</b><br><b>Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction Prize</b><br><b>Shortlisted for the British Book Award for Debut Fiction Book of the Year<br>Longlisted for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence</b><br><b>Named a Best Book of 2024 by<i> Slate,</i> the <i>Guardian, </i>and the New York Public Library</b><br><br><b>An utterly original celebration of that which binds humanity across battle lines and history. </b><br><br>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 <i>Medea</i>. 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.<br><br>Told in a contemporary Irish voice and as riotously funny as it is deeply moving,<i> Glorious Exploits</i> 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.</p>