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Glorious Exploits
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2024)Part Waiting for Godot , part O Brother, Where Art Thou , and completely original, Glorious Exploits is a celebration of the things that bind humanity across battle lines and history, and an ode to the redemptive power of storytelling.
Set in Syracuse, Sicily, during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish dialect, Glorious Exploits follows Lampo and Gelon, best friends since childhood. Thrilled to have survived the Athenians’ recent invasion and as shocked by the Syracusan victory as everyone else, these unemployed potters are in a mood to celebrate. Of course, they hate the Athenians. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t love the theatre of their great playwright Euripides, does it? Realizing that if the Athenians are as doomed as everyone says, this might be their last chance to hear Euripides’s poetry, they go down to the quarry where the Athenian prisoners are being held and offer extra rations to any prisoner who can recite his work, a decision that sets into motion an extraordinary series of events.
A novel that asks big questions about war and its aftermath, Glorious Exploits is a story as hopeful and playful as it is tragic.
Set in Syracuse, Sicily, during the Peloponnesian War but told in contemporary Irish dialect, Glorious Exploits follows Lampo and Gelon, best friends since childhood. Thrilled to have survived the Athenians’ recent invasion and as shocked by the Syracusan victory as everyone else, these unemployed potters are in a mood to celebrate. Of course, they hate the Athenians. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t love the theatre of their great playwright Euripides, does it? Realizing that if the Athenians are as doomed as everyone says, this might be their last chance to hear Euripides’s poetry, they go down to the quarry where the Athenian prisoners are being held and offer extra rations to any prisoner who can recite his work, a decision that sets into motion an extraordinary series of events.
A novel that asks big questions about war and its aftermath, Glorious Exploits is a story as hopeful and playful as it is tragic.
288 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2024
About the author
Ferdia Lennon
2 books823 followersFerdia 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. His short stories have appeared in publications such as The Irish Times and The Stinging Fly. In 2019 and 2021, he received Literature Bursary Awards from the Arts Council of Ireland. 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 and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction. After spending many years in Paris, he now lives in Norwich with his wife and son.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,315 reviews
December 4, 2023
The book you never knew you needed in your life. Glorious Exploits is madness. Nothing about it should work. It's like Kevin Barry-meets-Homer.
And yet. And yet. It is absolutely brilliant. So enjoyable. So funny and satisfying. So sad and brutal and glorious.
It is about war and art and literature and friendship and love and family and community. I loved it fully and hope it finds many readers.
And yet. And yet. It is absolutely brilliant. So enjoyable. So funny and satisfying. So sad and brutal and glorious.
It is about war and art and literature and friendship and love and family and community. I loved it fully and hope it finds many readers.
February 24, 2024
‘Gelon says that’s what the best plays do. If they’re true enough you’ll recognize it even if it all seems mad at first, and this is why we give a shit about Troy, though for all we know, it was just some dream of Homer’s’
Gosh this was fun. At first it felt sort of like Monty Python’s Life of Brian except Irish and set during the Peloponnesian War. Complete with Irish vernacular: It’s Sicily, 412 BCE and we’ve got Syracusans calling each other ‘gobshite’ while coercing Athenian POWs into performing Euripides’ Medea.
Glorious Exploits nails the comedy, but it turns out to be more than just a cheeky premise and dry Irish humour — the story that unfolds has a lot of heart and depth to it too. There’s a message here about brotherhood, and art piercing the veil of propaganda, but it’s delivered with a light touch. Exploits? Yes. Glorious? YES.
Gosh this was fun. At first it felt sort of like Monty Python’s Life of Brian except Irish and set during the Peloponnesian War. Complete with Irish vernacular: It’s Sicily, 412 BCE and we’ve got Syracusans calling each other ‘gobshite’ while coercing Athenian POWs into performing Euripides’ Medea.
Glorious Exploits nails the comedy, but it turns out to be more than just a cheeky premise and dry Irish humour — the story that unfolds has a lot of heart and depth to it too. There’s a message here about brotherhood, and art piercing the veil of propaganda, but it’s delivered with a light touch. Exploits? Yes. Glorious? YES.
March 25, 2024
4.5⭐️
Set in 412 BC, in Syracuse, Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon follows the exploits of two unemployed potters Lampo and Gelon in the aftermath of the Athenian invasion of Syracuse. As the vanquished Athenians lay imprisoned in one of the old quarries in the city, starved and kept in horrific living conditions and easy targets for those seeking revenge against the invaders, Gelon and Lampo devise a plan to direct a production of Euripides’s Medea with those captives who remember the lines from the plays. Gelon is motivated by his love for Greek plays and his fear that the defeat of the Athenians would ultimately result in their famous literary works being lost to time. Lampo, the loyal friend that he is, goes along with his friend’s plans, though he does not share his friend’s fascination for Greek tragedies. The Athenians who know the lines of the play are offered extra rations as an incentive to participate. The narrative follows the friends as try to organize the resources (casting, funding, venue, costumes and of course, an audience who would need to be convinced to attend a play featuring the Athenians who the Sicilians hate with a vengeance) they would require for staging Medea and Euripides’ new play The Trojan Women which Gelon only recently heard about and the events that follow.
I was intrigued by the unique and original premise of this novel and was not disappointed. The narrative is presented from the perspective of Lampo in the first person. While Gelon is brooding and intense with a literary bent of mind, and having experienced much personal loss in his lifetime, in contrast, Lampo is more easygoing, impulsive, compassionate and loyal to a fault as is evidenced through his friendship with Gelon, his interactions with the captives in the quarry and his feelings for Lyra. There are quite a few sub-plots woven into the primary narrative that flow well, without ever becoming overwhelming despite the large cast of supporting characters and the multiple threads of the story. The supporting characters are equally well thought out and each has a distinct role to play in the story. The writing is elegant with contemporary dialect interspersed throughout the narrative, which works surprisingly well. The author strikes a perfect balance between the dry humor and light-hearted humorous elements in the first half of the story and the heartbreaking shocking events later in the narrative that alter the direction of the story altogether culminating in an emotionally satisfying yet bittersweet ending. The story touches upon themes of friendship, loyalty, the horrors of war, love and loss, grief and how an appreciation of art and literature can be a unifying force for people all across the world, despite their differences otherwise. Well-written, with a vividly described setting and well-thought-out characters, this novel is an engaging, entertaining read.
Many thanks to Henry Holt and Co. for the gifted ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
Set in 412 BC, in Syracuse, Sicily amid the Peloponnesian War, Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon follows the exploits of two unemployed potters Lampo and Gelon in the aftermath of the Athenian invasion of Syracuse. As the vanquished Athenians lay imprisoned in one of the old quarries in the city, starved and kept in horrific living conditions and easy targets for those seeking revenge against the invaders, Gelon and Lampo devise a plan to direct a production of Euripides’s Medea with those captives who remember the lines from the plays. Gelon is motivated by his love for Greek plays and his fear that the defeat of the Athenians would ultimately result in their famous literary works being lost to time. Lampo, the loyal friend that he is, goes along with his friend’s plans, though he does not share his friend’s fascination for Greek tragedies. The Athenians who know the lines of the play are offered extra rations as an incentive to participate. The narrative follows the friends as try to organize the resources (casting, funding, venue, costumes and of course, an audience who would need to be convinced to attend a play featuring the Athenians who the Sicilians hate with a vengeance) they would require for staging Medea and Euripides’ new play The Trojan Women which Gelon only recently heard about and the events that follow.
I was intrigued by the unique and original premise of this novel and was not disappointed. The narrative is presented from the perspective of Lampo in the first person. While Gelon is brooding and intense with a literary bent of mind, and having experienced much personal loss in his lifetime, in contrast, Lampo is more easygoing, impulsive, compassionate and loyal to a fault as is evidenced through his friendship with Gelon, his interactions with the captives in the quarry and his feelings for Lyra. There are quite a few sub-plots woven into the primary narrative that flow well, without ever becoming overwhelming despite the large cast of supporting characters and the multiple threads of the story. The supporting characters are equally well thought out and each has a distinct role to play in the story. The writing is elegant with contemporary dialect interspersed throughout the narrative, which works surprisingly well. The author strikes a perfect balance between the dry humor and light-hearted humorous elements in the first half of the story and the heartbreaking shocking events later in the narrative that alter the direction of the story altogether culminating in an emotionally satisfying yet bittersweet ending. The story touches upon themes of friendship, loyalty, the horrors of war, love and loss, grief and how an appreciation of art and literature can be a unifying force for people all across the world, despite their differences otherwise. Well-written, with a vividly described setting and well-thought-out characters, this novel is an engaging, entertaining read.
Many thanks to Henry Holt and Co. for the gifted ARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Connect with me! ✏ Instagram ✏ My Blog ✏ The StoryGraph
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June 4, 2026I'd been reading Homer's books and Euripides' plays non-stop for nearly two months when a goodreads friend reminded me of this Ferdia Lennon book, set in the lifetime of the Athenian playwright Euripides.
I'd bought the book last year but was too busy reading other stuff to give it due attention so I left it aside. But after I'd wolfed down eight Euripides' plays in a row, I picked up Lennon's book again. Incidentally, his first name, Ferdia, is from a Celtic myth about two heroes who were reared as brothers similar to Achilles and Patroclus in Homer's version of the Greek heroes' story.
Ferdia Lennon's book is set in Syracuse, in the southern part of Sicily in 412BC just after the island had withstood an invasion by a fleet of Athenian ships. Of course, the Greeks had invaded Sicily before but the locals had shaken off their Greek overlords at this stage though they still spoke a dialect of Greek and were fairly familiar with Greek culture.
Near the beginning of the story there is a great bit of dialogue between the two main characters, the narrator Lampo, a potter by trade, and his friend Gelon. The author, who is Irish, makes his main characters speak in a contemporary Dublin vernacular despite them living in ancient Syracuse :
"'You think Homer knew when he’d written The Iliad that he’d written The Iliad?'
'Reckon so, ' Gelon nods.
'And Euripides. When he wrote Medea. You think he knew what he’d done?'
'Yeah.'
Gelon’s mad for Euripides..."
Being 'mad for Euripides' myself, I wanted to hug those two guys there and then! And I wanted to join them in Dismas' pub in Syracuse where they hung out every evening hatching a plan about—what else but Euripides!
And I'd have found the two easily even in a crowded pub because invariably, "Gelon heads straight for Homer’s chair. A rickety piece of shit the blind bard is reported to have sat on during a visit to Syracuse a few hundred years back. It’s stuck in the corner, a bronze inscription above that reads ‘Homer’s chair’. Is it Homer’s chair? Well, there are many Homer’s chairs scattered across Syracuse, and can they all be Homer’s chair? Why not? The arse is capricious and does not wed for life, and so perhaps, yeah, it is Homer’s chair."
If I had joined them in the pub, I'd have backed their crazy plan one hundred percent. What was their plan? To stage a Euripides play in Syracuse. What was crazy about that, you might ask?
Several things as it turned out.
The Athenians who'd been taken prisoner after their failed attempt to subdue Sicily were being held in a disused quarry outside Syracuse. One of the mad parts of the heroes' plan involved using the semi-circular quarry where the Greek prisoners were being held as a theatre. Lampo and Gelon knew parts of Euripides' 'Medea' but they'd heard he'd written a new play called 'The Trojan Women' and they desperately wanted to see it performed. No one in Syracuse knew the lines of the new play—except possibly the Athenian prisoners. So yes, the really crazy part of the plan was to get the half-starved prisoners to perform 'Medea' plus 'The Trojan Women (the first Euripides play I read and still my favourite:)
So Gelon and Lampo go down to the quarry every day, bribe the guard with a wineskin, and mingle with the prisoners in the awful heat and the stench of the enclosure.
"'Any Euripides?’
‘Euripides, man, do you know any?’
'Water and cheese for anyone who knows lines of Euripides and can recite them! If it’s from Medea, or The Trojan Women, you’ll get olives too.'"
The two would-be directors eventually assemble a makeshift cast of actors, and the word 'makeshift' may never have been applied to anything so fittingly. The prisoners are dying from heat and starvation, and they are shackled by ankle chains, but they know enough scraps of Euripides to satisfy Gelon. The prisoners being all men doesn't stop him choosing a Hecuba and a Helen, and a Medea too, since in those days women's parts were played by men.
Ferdia Lennon weaves enough human interest subplots into the inhuman conditions of this prison/theatre story to keep readers reading, and I enjoyed it all very much—especially the (almost) 'live' performance of the two plays. There was a wonderful rightness in 'The Trojan Women' being performed by Greek actors wearing chains. The original defeated women of Troy may not have worn chains but they might as well have—they were complete prisoners of their Greek captors.
I finished this ingenious book on a recent flight, and when I reached the end, I got a welcome surprise. After Lampo and Gelon's Syracuse story ends, there's a short epilogue which takes place a few years later and describes one of the prisoners' return to Athens where, after much difficulty, he tracks down—who else but Euripides!
And I read that epilogue as my plane touched down—where else but Athens!
I admit I spent a fair bit of time while in Athens looking for traces of Euripides myself. If there'd been a Euripides 'chair' in some wine bar or other, I'd have camped in it every evening. As it was, I had to be satisfied with seeing his name mentioned on the information panel beside the Theatre of Dionysus on the way up to the south entrance of the Acropolis. His many plays had been performed in that very theatre in his lifetime, and he'd been awarded prizes there for some of them. But that information panel was the only place I found mention of Euripides.
On my final day in Athens, I reluctantly went along to see the changing of the guard ceremony at the former palace of the King—my companion really wanted to see it though I'm not much interested in displays related to royalty. After the performance ended, we were walking along by the railings of the gardens behind the palace when I spotted a bust on a plinth. I expected it to be a political/royal figure but I peered at the inscription anyway. I can't read Greek but still I made out the name: Euripides! I'd found him at last!
I'd bought the book last year but was too busy reading other stuff to give it due attention so I left it aside. But after I'd wolfed down eight Euripides' plays in a row, I picked up Lennon's book again. Incidentally, his first name, Ferdia, is from a Celtic myth about two heroes who were reared as brothers similar to Achilles and Patroclus in Homer's version of the Greek heroes' story.
Ferdia Lennon's book is set in Syracuse, in the southern part of Sicily in 412BC just after the island had withstood an invasion by a fleet of Athenian ships. Of course, the Greeks had invaded Sicily before but the locals had shaken off their Greek overlords at this stage though they still spoke a dialect of Greek and were fairly familiar with Greek culture.
Near the beginning of the story there is a great bit of dialogue between the two main characters, the narrator Lampo, a potter by trade, and his friend Gelon. The author, who is Irish, makes his main characters speak in a contemporary Dublin vernacular despite them living in ancient Syracuse :
"'You think Homer knew when he’d written The Iliad that he’d written The Iliad?'
'Reckon so, ' Gelon nods.
'And Euripides. When he wrote Medea. You think he knew what he’d done?'
'Yeah.'
Gelon’s mad for Euripides..."
Being 'mad for Euripides' myself, I wanted to hug those two guys there and then! And I wanted to join them in Dismas' pub in Syracuse where they hung out every evening hatching a plan about—what else but Euripides!
And I'd have found the two easily even in a crowded pub because invariably, "Gelon heads straight for Homer’s chair. A rickety piece of shit the blind bard is reported to have sat on during a visit to Syracuse a few hundred years back. It’s stuck in the corner, a bronze inscription above that reads ‘Homer’s chair’. Is it Homer’s chair? Well, there are many Homer’s chairs scattered across Syracuse, and can they all be Homer’s chair? Why not? The arse is capricious and does not wed for life, and so perhaps, yeah, it is Homer’s chair."
If I had joined them in the pub, I'd have backed their crazy plan one hundred percent. What was their plan? To stage a Euripides play in Syracuse. What was crazy about that, you might ask?
Several things as it turned out.
The Athenians who'd been taken prisoner after their failed attempt to subdue Sicily were being held in a disused quarry outside Syracuse. One of the mad parts of the heroes' plan involved using the semi-circular quarry where the Greek prisoners were being held as a theatre. Lampo and Gelon knew parts of Euripides' 'Medea' but they'd heard he'd written a new play called 'The Trojan Women' and they desperately wanted to see it performed. No one in Syracuse knew the lines of the new play—except possibly the Athenian prisoners. So yes, the really crazy part of the plan was to get the half-starved prisoners to perform 'Medea' plus 'The Trojan Women (the first Euripides play I read and still my favourite:)
So Gelon and Lampo go down to the quarry every day, bribe the guard with a wineskin, and mingle with the prisoners in the awful heat and the stench of the enclosure.
"'Any Euripides?’
‘Euripides, man, do you know any?’
'Water and cheese for anyone who knows lines of Euripides and can recite them! If it’s from Medea, or The Trojan Women, you’ll get olives too.'"
The two would-be directors eventually assemble a makeshift cast of actors, and the word 'makeshift' may never have been applied to anything so fittingly. The prisoners are dying from heat and starvation, and they are shackled by ankle chains, but they know enough scraps of Euripides to satisfy Gelon. The prisoners being all men doesn't stop him choosing a Hecuba and a Helen, and a Medea too, since in those days women's parts were played by men.
Ferdia Lennon weaves enough human interest subplots into the inhuman conditions of this prison/theatre story to keep readers reading, and I enjoyed it all very much—especially the (almost) 'live' performance of the two plays. There was a wonderful rightness in 'The Trojan Women' being performed by Greek actors wearing chains. The original defeated women of Troy may not have worn chains but they might as well have—they were complete prisoners of their Greek captors.
I finished this ingenious book on a recent flight, and when I reached the end, I got a welcome surprise. After Lampo and Gelon's Syracuse story ends, there's a short epilogue which takes place a few years later and describes one of the prisoners' return to Athens where, after much difficulty, he tracks down—who else but Euripides!
And I read that epilogue as my plane touched down—where else but Athens!
I admit I spent a fair bit of time while in Athens looking for traces of Euripides myself. If there'd been a Euripides 'chair' in some wine bar or other, I'd have camped in it every evening. As it was, I had to be satisfied with seeing his name mentioned on the information panel beside the Theatre of Dionysus on the way up to the south entrance of the Acropolis. His many plays had been performed in that very theatre in his lifetime, and he'd been awarded prizes there for some of them. But that information panel was the only place I found mention of Euripides.
On my final day in Athens, I reluctantly went along to see the changing of the guard ceremony at the former palace of the King—my companion really wanted to see it though I'm not much interested in displays related to royalty. After the performance ended, we were walking along by the railings of the gardens behind the palace when I spotted a bust on a plinth. I expected it to be a political/royal figure but I peered at the inscription anyway. I can't read Greek but still I made out the name: Euripides! I'd found him at last!
December 19, 2024
There's been a huge amount of "people of the ancient world – they're just like us!" fiction in the last few years, and while I've read and liked a lot of it, this is the first where I have truly believed in my bones that someone in 412 BC really is just like me, just like you, just like everyone who has ever lived before or since. I read Glorious Exploits in two sittings over two evenings. The first evening with amused curiosity; the second evening in a totally absorbed, adrenaline-filled panic. I'm excited to re-read this because I think I missed a lot of Lennon's prose because I was so fierce about finding out what happened next. If the worst thing someone can say about your debut (DEBUT!) novel is "the plot was so engaging that I couldn't focus on the incredible sentences", I think it puts you in a pretty good position to be one of the most powerful storytellers of your generation. I'm so excited to read whatever comes next.
As an added note, Lennon mentions in his acknowledgements that the novel was written over a period of seven years and with financial help from the Irish Arts Council. If you're one of the countless people who wonders why so many great books come out of Ireland, this is one of the key reasons why. Great art doesn't exist in a vacuum, it needs to be resourced and funded, and I think we'd all live in a healthier creative community if conversations about *where the money comes from* were discussed more frequently.
As an added note, Lennon mentions in his acknowledgements that the novel was written over a period of seven years and with financial help from the Irish Arts Council. If you're one of the countless people who wonders why so many great books come out of Ireland, this is one of the key reasons why. Great art doesn't exist in a vacuum, it needs to be resourced and funded, and I think we'd all live in a healthier creative community if conversations about *where the money comes from* were discussed more frequently.
January 17, 2025
Sigh.
So, look. I get why people recommended this to me and why people might think I'd like it: set in the Peloponnesian War, Greek crap, theatre, funny, etc. The problem is threefold:
1) It insists upon itself, Lois.
2) I didn't actually find it funny.
3) The 1st person MC is so incredibly insufferable and unlikeable that I almost couldn't even finish it.
This is a book about the brutalities of war, the longsuffering costs of said war, how it changes people, how they continue with their lives after. How in victory we treat the losers as less than human, even though we wouldn't want them to do the same if our situations were reversed. It's also about the power of theatre and shared stories to transcend differences and participating in something greater than ourselves. That's fine.
I just don't think it's a very good book. It's hamfisted thematically. Our narrator, Lampo, is just a wretched human being who thinks he's funny--he isn't--and seems to have the emotional resiliency of a 5th grader. The story just kinda chugs along and I know there's supposed to be a part where I'm horrified--simply aghast!--but I did not care about anyone involved, so I was just happy it was going to be over--only to see I still had almost 100 pages left. The contemporary writing style is jarring, and I understand what the author was going for: trying to create tonal dissonance between tone and content, but I think it just irritates instead. To me, it just felt like a pretentious book, one that my friends like Philip and Johanna would love, and leave me feeling like I just read a different book than they did.
Two years ago, I read FULGENTIUS by Cesar Aira which has very similar themes: dehumanizing the other, the power of the theatre, the brutality of war, the casual way with which brutality is treated, but I enjoyed FULGENTIUS much more. Part of that is it wasn't 1st person because even though Fulgentius is a terrible man, at least we had some distance in its 3rd person perspective. Fulgentius was also shorter, nor was I meant to care about him or anyone involved in it.
Both are morality plays--and I didn't love FULGENTIUS--but I felt like the latter was just a cracked door you stumbled by, peeking through to see the cruelties of man, while the former was the guy on the side of the road, wearing a sandwich board and screaming "look at me, look at me!!"
I'm sad I did not like this, but I am eager to have the discussion with John, Amy, and Johanna, if only to hear how different their experience was.
So, look. I get why people recommended this to me and why people might think I'd like it: set in the Peloponnesian War, Greek crap, theatre, funny, etc. The problem is threefold:
1) It insists upon itself, Lois.
2) I didn't actually find it funny.
3) The 1st person MC is so incredibly insufferable and unlikeable that I almost couldn't even finish it.
This is a book about the brutalities of war, the longsuffering costs of said war, how it changes people, how they continue with their lives after. How in victory we treat the losers as less than human, even though we wouldn't want them to do the same if our situations were reversed. It's also about the power of theatre and shared stories to transcend differences and participating in something greater than ourselves. That's fine.
I just don't think it's a very good book. It's hamfisted thematically. Our narrator, Lampo, is just a wretched human being who thinks he's funny--he isn't--and seems to have the emotional resiliency of a 5th grader. The story just kinda chugs along and I know there's supposed to be a part where I'm horrified--simply aghast!--but I did not care about anyone involved, so I was just happy it was going to be over--only to see I still had almost 100 pages left. The contemporary writing style is jarring, and I understand what the author was going for: trying to create tonal dissonance between tone and content, but I think it just irritates instead. To me, it just felt like a pretentious book, one that my friends like Philip and Johanna would love, and leave me feeling like I just read a different book than they did.
Two years ago, I read FULGENTIUS by Cesar Aira which has very similar themes: dehumanizing the other, the power of the theatre, the brutality of war, the casual way with which brutality is treated, but I enjoyed FULGENTIUS much more. Part of that is it wasn't 1st person because even though Fulgentius is a terrible man, at least we had some distance in its 3rd person perspective. Fulgentius was also shorter, nor was I meant to care about him or anyone involved in it.
Both are morality plays--and I didn't love FULGENTIUS--but I felt like the latter was just a cracked door you stumbled by, peeking through to see the cruelties of man, while the former was the guy on the side of the road, wearing a sandwich board and screaming "look at me, look at me!!"
I'm sad I did not like this, but I am eager to have the discussion with John, Amy, and Johanna, if only to hear how different their experience was.
Read
January 24, 2025I would really like to talk to someone who read this because I'm at 30% and I haven't found anything remotely funny in this. A bunch of unhappy deluded drunks stumble around chatting shit while people starve to death in their concentration camp, and it...isn't tickling my funny bone? IDK, I like plenty of dark humour books but I'm just not getting it at all. A lot of people seem to bail around this point, is this a nadir and then the tone changes? Genuinely somewhat baffled here and would like to know what I'm missing.
March 12, 2025
“We don’t say much more for the next mile and walk in silence. But this isn’t the silence that comes from comfort; no, it’s that strained silence, where you can feel the throb of the other’s thoughts and stillborn sentences that die in the lips before they’re spoken.”
“Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon is a literary Trojan horse, sneaking into the realm of contemporary fiction with the guise of a historical romp, only to unleash a torrent of existential questions, biting satire, and raw humanity. Set against the backdrop of ancient Sicily, this audacious debut is a riotous blend of classical tragedy and modern wit, a tale that feels as timeless as Homer yet as fresh as a TikTok trend.
“Glorious Exploits” follows two Sicilian potters, Lampo and Gelon, who hatch a wild scheme to stage Euripides’ plays in the aftermath of the Athenian defeat in Syracuse. Their actors? Athenian prisoners of war. Their audience? A ragtag mix of Sicilian locals and war-weary soldiers. Their motivation? A mix of ambition, boredom, and a desperate yearning for meaning in a world gone mad. What unfolds is a chaotic, hilarious, and often heartbreaking exploration of art, identity, and the absurdity of human ambition. Lennon’s narrative is a wild ride, oscillating between slapstick comedy and profound meditation. One moment, you’re laughing at Lampo’s bumbling attempts to direct a group of reluctant Athenian prisoners; the next, you’re grappling with the weight of war, the fragility of life, and the power of storytelling. It’s as if Lennon took the DNA of “Waiting for Godot”, “The Iliad”, and “Monty Python”, spliced them together, and set the result loose in ancient Sicily.
The Characters: Flawed, Human, Unforgettable. Lampo and Gelon are the heart and soul of the novel, and their dynamic is nothing short of electric. Lampo, the dreamer with a penchant for grandiosity, is the perfect foil to Gelon, the pragmatic cynic with a hidden well of compassion. Their banter crackles with wit and authenticity, and their friendship feels as real as any in contemporary literature. The Athenian prisoners, too, are vividly drawn, each grappling with their own trauma and disillusionment.
The Themes: Art, War, and the Human Condition. Lennon uses the staging of Euripides’ plays as a lens to examine the power of art to heal, to provoke, and to unite. Can beauty exist in the midst of suffering? Can storytelling transcend the boundaries of culture and conflict? The answer, it seems, is a resounding yes—but not without cost. The novel also probes into the futility of war and the absurdity of human ambition. The Sicilians and Athenians, despite their enmity, are bound together by their shared humanity, their shared flaws, and their shared need for meaning. Lennon’s portrayal of war is unflinching, highlighting its senselessness without descending into nihilism. Instead, he offers a glimmer of hope—a belief in the redemptive power of art and connection.
The Style: A Feast for the Senses Lennon’s prose is a delight, rich with vivid imagery and laced with humor. His descriptions of ancient Sicily are immersive, transporting us to a world of sun-baked streets, olive groves, and crumbling amphitheaters. His dialogue crackles with energy, blending ancient and modern vernacular in a way that feels both playful and profound. That said, Lennon’s stylistic choices may not be for everyone. The blending of ancient and modern language, while clever, can be jarring, and the novel’s tonal shifts—from comedy to tragedy, from satire to sincerity—can feel disjointed.
“Glorious Exploits” is a novel that defies easy categorization. It’s a historical novel that feels utterly contemporary, a comedy that packs an emotional punch, a satire that brims with sincerity. It’s messy, ambitious, and occasionally uneven—but isn’t that the point? Lennon has crafted a work that reflects the chaos and complexity of the human experience, a novel that challenges, provokes, and ultimately inspires. It is a Glorious Experiment, a bold and brilliant debut that marks Ferdia Lennon as a writer to watch. So yes take a chance on “Glorious Exploits” , let it sweep you up in its madcap odyssey, its kaleidoscope of myth and modernity. And ask yourself: What does it mean to create, to connect, to be human? The answers may surprise you.
“It’s despair and meaning that are being pitted against one another, and its asking, if meaning departs from reason, might there not be wisdom in a faith-filled lunacy?”
4.5/5 amphorae of Sicilian wine. Cheers!
“Glorious Exploits” by Ferdia Lennon is a literary Trojan horse, sneaking into the realm of contemporary fiction with the guise of a historical romp, only to unleash a torrent of existential questions, biting satire, and raw humanity. Set against the backdrop of ancient Sicily, this audacious debut is a riotous blend of classical tragedy and modern wit, a tale that feels as timeless as Homer yet as fresh as a TikTok trend.
“Glorious Exploits” follows two Sicilian potters, Lampo and Gelon, who hatch a wild scheme to stage Euripides’ plays in the aftermath of the Athenian defeat in Syracuse. Their actors? Athenian prisoners of war. Their audience? A ragtag mix of Sicilian locals and war-weary soldiers. Their motivation? A mix of ambition, boredom, and a desperate yearning for meaning in a world gone mad. What unfolds is a chaotic, hilarious, and often heartbreaking exploration of art, identity, and the absurdity of human ambition. Lennon’s narrative is a wild ride, oscillating between slapstick comedy and profound meditation. One moment, you’re laughing at Lampo’s bumbling attempts to direct a group of reluctant Athenian prisoners; the next, you’re grappling with the weight of war, the fragility of life, and the power of storytelling. It’s as if Lennon took the DNA of “Waiting for Godot”, “The Iliad”, and “Monty Python”, spliced them together, and set the result loose in ancient Sicily.
The Characters: Flawed, Human, Unforgettable. Lampo and Gelon are the heart and soul of the novel, and their dynamic is nothing short of electric. Lampo, the dreamer with a penchant for grandiosity, is the perfect foil to Gelon, the pragmatic cynic with a hidden well of compassion. Their banter crackles with wit and authenticity, and their friendship feels as real as any in contemporary literature. The Athenian prisoners, too, are vividly drawn, each grappling with their own trauma and disillusionment.
The Themes: Art, War, and the Human Condition. Lennon uses the staging of Euripides’ plays as a lens to examine the power of art to heal, to provoke, and to unite. Can beauty exist in the midst of suffering? Can storytelling transcend the boundaries of culture and conflict? The answer, it seems, is a resounding yes—but not without cost. The novel also probes into the futility of war and the absurdity of human ambition. The Sicilians and Athenians, despite their enmity, are bound together by their shared humanity, their shared flaws, and their shared need for meaning. Lennon’s portrayal of war is unflinching, highlighting its senselessness without descending into nihilism. Instead, he offers a glimmer of hope—a belief in the redemptive power of art and connection.
The Style: A Feast for the Senses Lennon’s prose is a delight, rich with vivid imagery and laced with humor. His descriptions of ancient Sicily are immersive, transporting us to a world of sun-baked streets, olive groves, and crumbling amphitheaters. His dialogue crackles with energy, blending ancient and modern vernacular in a way that feels both playful and profound. That said, Lennon’s stylistic choices may not be for everyone. The blending of ancient and modern language, while clever, can be jarring, and the novel’s tonal shifts—from comedy to tragedy, from satire to sincerity—can feel disjointed.
“Glorious Exploits” is a novel that defies easy categorization. It’s a historical novel that feels utterly contemporary, a comedy that packs an emotional punch, a satire that brims with sincerity. It’s messy, ambitious, and occasionally uneven—but isn’t that the point? Lennon has crafted a work that reflects the chaos and complexity of the human experience, a novel that challenges, provokes, and ultimately inspires. It is a Glorious Experiment, a bold and brilliant debut that marks Ferdia Lennon as a writer to watch. So yes take a chance on “Glorious Exploits” , let it sweep you up in its madcap odyssey, its kaleidoscope of myth and modernity. And ask yourself: What does it mean to create, to connect, to be human? The answers may surprise you.
“It’s despair and meaning that are being pitted against one another, and its asking, if meaning departs from reason, might there not be wisdom in a faith-filled lunacy?”
4.5/5 amphorae of Sicilian wine. Cheers!
August 14, 2024
BookTube channel with my awesome brother, Ed - The Brothers Gwynne
My personal BookTube channel - William Gwynne
My 2nd favourite book of 2024!
My brother recently read and loved this after it won the Waterstones Debut Award, so I trusted his judgement and picked it up. I am so glad that I did.
Glorious Exploits is a truly unique read. It has characters that leap from the page, an engaging plot, a wonderful writing style and a story you can connect with. All the hallmarks of an excellent book. But this also has that 'X' factor that is so often indescribable. Ferdia Lennon brings all these elements together to weave a truly masterful read that makes you laugh, makes you sweat with fear, and makes you cry. Very few books can achieve all three, and it is done expertly in Glorious Exploits.
We are thrust into 412 BC Syracuse, after an Athenian force have failed to conquer them. The Athenian prisoners has been thrown into a quarry to slowly starve, and during this time two recently jobless potters decide to go to the quarry and feed the Athenian prisoners who can quote lines from the plays of Euripides, an Athenian playwright. This then evolves into them deciding to direct a play, with the prisoners as the cast....
“If I’m honest, some days I still come here to sniff and stroll and lose myself in other worlds, and like when I was a kid, I wonder if the real places are anything like I’m imagining, and just like then, I wince, for something tells me I’ll never know, but it’s still a buzz.”
Glorious Exploits took this very unique premise and runs away with it, with a humorous undertone to the style that was very amusing, but also provoked a visceral reaction at times when it contrasted with the content, which can be very brutal. This could have come across as jarring, but in my opinion a balance was struck that perfectly exploited (my pun of the day) its potential.
This is a read that I would recommend to everyone, no matter if they mainly read historical fiction, thriller, fantasy, horror or poetry. It is a book that hooks you and refuses to let you go, investing you in the characters and exploring the human condition along the way.
A truly exceptional read.
5/5 STARS
My personal BookTube channel - William Gwynne
My 2nd favourite book of 2024!
My brother recently read and loved this after it won the Waterstones Debut Award, so I trusted his judgement and picked it up. I am so glad that I did.
Glorious Exploits is a truly unique read. It has characters that leap from the page, an engaging plot, a wonderful writing style and a story you can connect with. All the hallmarks of an excellent book. But this also has that 'X' factor that is so often indescribable. Ferdia Lennon brings all these elements together to weave a truly masterful read that makes you laugh, makes you sweat with fear, and makes you cry. Very few books can achieve all three, and it is done expertly in Glorious Exploits.
We are thrust into 412 BC Syracuse, after an Athenian force have failed to conquer them. The Athenian prisoners has been thrown into a quarry to slowly starve, and during this time two recently jobless potters decide to go to the quarry and feed the Athenian prisoners who can quote lines from the plays of Euripides, an Athenian playwright. This then evolves into them deciding to direct a play, with the prisoners as the cast....
“If I’m honest, some days I still come here to sniff and stroll and lose myself in other worlds, and like when I was a kid, I wonder if the real places are anything like I’m imagining, and just like then, I wince, for something tells me I’ll never know, but it’s still a buzz.”
Glorious Exploits took this very unique premise and runs away with it, with a humorous undertone to the style that was very amusing, but also provoked a visceral reaction at times when it contrasted with the content, which can be very brutal. This could have come across as jarring, but in my opinion a balance was struck that perfectly exploited (my pun of the day) its potential.
This is a read that I would recommend to everyone, no matter if they mainly read historical fiction, thriller, fantasy, horror or poetry. It is a book that hooks you and refuses to let you go, investing you in the characters and exploring the human condition along the way.
A truly exceptional read.
5/5 STARS
July 22, 2024
2024 Barker Prize Shortlist
Winner of the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award
Winner of the Waterstones Debut Novel Prize
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction
Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction category
Shortlisted for the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize
Shortlisted for the 2025 Walter Scott Prize
This impressively memorable and distinctive debut novel - which is I think is poised to make a number prize lists over the next year or so – sits at the intersection of the author’s two degrees: A BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia.
If there is a genre to which this otherwise sui generis novel it belongs it could be the retelling of Greek classics genre which has appeared over many a prize list in recent years (mainly written by female authors) but other than its classic-age Greek setting (more later) it perhaps draws equally on firstly the writing of the two Barry’s - Sebastian and (more so) Kevin with descriptive Irish-laced English prose telling the story of the Irish diaspora over history – but in this case taken to a more extreme case with instead characters from ancient times and distant shores who nevertheless deal in Dublin-inspired dialogue (and maybe slightly the surrealism of Monty Python). But its also at heart something of a love story.
The origins of the novel have been described by the author in a line in Plutarch about the disastrous Athenian invasion of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War – in the author’s words: It was a complete disaster, and at the end, there were so many Athenian prisoners, they couldn't fit them in a prison, so they put them in this limestone quarry outside of the city of Syracuse. Plutarch tells us that some of these defeated Athenians survived because their Siracusan captors would give them food and rations in exchange for quotes from Euripides
Interestingly I have seen two interviews where the author mentions this and then draws two different lessons, the first that “This is in that historical record: the idea of art as literally a lifeline. On an individual level, art can just make our lives richer. But then as a community, it can definitely be something that brings people together.", but the second “Who were these Siracusans who were so obsessed with the poetry and art they'll feed these prisoners of war while also dehumanizing them to the point that they're just leaving them to die in a quarry”
And both of these aspects come out in the novel.
The second and the really distinctive aspect of the novel is the voice of the main characters – and again this is best explained by the author: It came to me. Out of nowhere, I had a character-and he sounded Irish. I had to step back and think, "What's the logic? Why does this man sound like a contemporary Dub?" And I realized that Sicily is this island that's been colonized a few hundred years before the novel is set; Ireland is an island that's been colonized by another maritime empire. And the Hiberno-English that we speak is recognizably English, but there are little nuances and differences, sometimes because the native Gaelic is playing underneath it.
In terms of the story – the first party narrator is Lampo (something of a chancer) and together with his sidekick Gelon (a more mournful figure – his wife having left him and his son dead) the two unemployed (or at least not gainfully and legally employed) potters decide to visit the Athenian’s quarry prison and to give them some food in exchange for some play lines: “No Sophocles, nor Aeschylus, nor any other Athenian poet. You can recite them if it pleases you, but water and cheese are only for Euripides … A mouthful of olives for some Medea?”
From there they hatch a plan to stage a production of Medea in the quarry – adapting their plan to be a dual play when they realise Euripides has written a new play “The Trojan Woman” which with what seems the inevitable defeat of Athens (its navy ruined on the shores of Syracuse) may be the only way to ever stage it.
And it’s a rather aspirational plan which only takes shape when they are backed by the rather menacing figure of Tuireann – a hugely wealthy trader from the “Tin Islands” (clearly ancient Ireland) who now engaged in antique and curiosity collections – Tuireann’s involvement being something of a metaphor for the blend of classic restating and Irish vernacular literature.
The rather sentimental Lampo gets increasingly invested in the fate of their lead actor (particularly as it becomes clear that some of the Syracusans – most of all a brutal local who delights in beating the Athenians including we come to understand having killed the actors closest friend and likely lover – are hell bent on revenge on the Athenians for the deaths of their families and friends in the early stages of the invasion) and falls in love with a foreign slave girl who serves in his local pub (which alas is not some classic variation on a Guinness-themed faux-Irish Pub – perhaps one part of Irishness too much for the author).
And as a result of these – as Lampo plots how to free both of them – the book increasingly becomes an engrossing, character led drama – a welcome development as while I really appreciated the set up and enjoyed its early execution - I did wonder if it would start to pale as something of a one trick novel. And while the plot trajectory threatens perhaps excess sentimentality there is a pleasing amount of pathos (if perhaps a little too much of a sitcom style misunderstanding)
But overall, highly recommended.
Winner of the Author’s Club Best First Novel Award
Winner of the Waterstones Debut Novel Prize
Winner of the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction
Shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction category
Shortlisted for the 2025 Dylan Thomas Prize
Shortlisted for the 2025 Walter Scott Prize
I recall the night Gelon told me he wanted to do this. He sang a song from Medea's chorus ……… when the kids are dead, and it gives a weird sense of time merging, and for a moment, I have the feeling that the future and the past aren't separate at all, just different snatches of single song, always sung, given consequence when heard.
This impressively memorable and distinctive debut novel - which is I think is poised to make a number prize lists over the next year or so – sits at the intersection of the author’s two degrees: A BA in History and Classics from University College Dublin and an MA in Prose Fiction from the University of East Anglia.
If there is a genre to which this otherwise sui generis novel it belongs it could be the retelling of Greek classics genre which has appeared over many a prize list in recent years (mainly written by female authors) but other than its classic-age Greek setting (more later) it perhaps draws equally on firstly the writing of the two Barry’s - Sebastian and (more so) Kevin with descriptive Irish-laced English prose telling the story of the Irish diaspora over history – but in this case taken to a more extreme case with instead characters from ancient times and distant shores who nevertheless deal in Dublin-inspired dialogue (and maybe slightly the surrealism of Monty Python). But its also at heart something of a love story.
The origins of the novel have been described by the author in a line in Plutarch about the disastrous Athenian invasion of Sicily in the Peloponnesian War – in the author’s words: It was a complete disaster, and at the end, there were so many Athenian prisoners, they couldn't fit them in a prison, so they put them in this limestone quarry outside of the city of Syracuse. Plutarch tells us that some of these defeated Athenians survived because their Siracusan captors would give them food and rations in exchange for quotes from Euripides
Interestingly I have seen two interviews where the author mentions this and then draws two different lessons, the first that “This is in that historical record: the idea of art as literally a lifeline. On an individual level, art can just make our lives richer. But then as a community, it can definitely be something that brings people together.", but the second “Who were these Siracusans who were so obsessed with the poetry and art they'll feed these prisoners of war while also dehumanizing them to the point that they're just leaving them to die in a quarry”
And both of these aspects come out in the novel.
The second and the really distinctive aspect of the novel is the voice of the main characters – and again this is best explained by the author: It came to me. Out of nowhere, I had a character-and he sounded Irish. I had to step back and think, "What's the logic? Why does this man sound like a contemporary Dub?" And I realized that Sicily is this island that's been colonized a few hundred years before the novel is set; Ireland is an island that's been colonized by another maritime empire. And the Hiberno-English that we speak is recognizably English, but there are little nuances and differences, sometimes because the native Gaelic is playing underneath it.
In terms of the story – the first party narrator is Lampo (something of a chancer) and together with his sidekick Gelon (a more mournful figure – his wife having left him and his son dead) the two unemployed (or at least not gainfully and legally employed) potters decide to visit the Athenian’s quarry prison and to give them some food in exchange for some play lines: “No Sophocles, nor Aeschylus, nor any other Athenian poet. You can recite them if it pleases you, but water and cheese are only for Euripides … A mouthful of olives for some Medea?”
From there they hatch a plan to stage a production of Medea in the quarry – adapting their plan to be a dual play when they realise Euripides has written a new play “The Trojan Woman” which with what seems the inevitable defeat of Athens (its navy ruined on the shores of Syracuse) may be the only way to ever stage it.
And it’s a rather aspirational plan which only takes shape when they are backed by the rather menacing figure of Tuireann – a hugely wealthy trader from the “Tin Islands” (clearly ancient Ireland) who now engaged in antique and curiosity collections – Tuireann’s involvement being something of a metaphor for the blend of classic restating and Irish vernacular literature.
And like that, we're flush. It hits me, sudden, how foolish we've been. Directors without a producer are like a ship without a sail, the medium of wind to endeavours nautical being equivalent to coin in all theatrical, and till now we've had _ all of that. Tuireann, for that's the queer-sounding name of our producer, thinks staging a play with the Athenians is genius. See, he's always been fascinated by the theatre but felt there was something too safe about the surface level of its pageantry that put him off investing. Now, at last, with us, he's found his kind of show. In fairness, I have my reservations about Tuireann, and his talk is most peculiar, but he's minted and understands talent, and that will do for now.
The rather sentimental Lampo gets increasingly invested in the fate of their lead actor (particularly as it becomes clear that some of the Syracusans – most of all a brutal local who delights in beating the Athenians including we come to understand having killed the actors closest friend and likely lover – are hell bent on revenge on the Athenians for the deaths of their families and friends in the early stages of the invasion) and falls in love with a foreign slave girl who serves in his local pub (which alas is not some classic variation on a Guinness-themed faux-Irish Pub – perhaps one part of Irishness too much for the author).
And as a result of these – as Lampo plots how to free both of them – the book increasingly becomes an engrossing, character led drama – a welcome development as while I really appreciated the set up and enjoyed its early execution - I did wonder if it would start to pale as something of a one trick novel. And while the plot trajectory threatens perhaps excess sentimentality there is a pleasing amount of pathos (if perhaps a little too much of a sitcom style misunderstanding)
But overall, highly recommended.
"The Trojan Women? The finest I've ever seen..' He hesitates. 'Once, something very much like that happened:
War, sure it happens all the time.' He smiles sadly and nods.
Yes, it does. It truly does. But this happened in another world entirely. Not the dusty plains of Ilium, nor Syracuse. No, it was in a land of rain and woods, a green-growing world, but yet it happened in almost exactly the same way. The hearts of men are alike wherever you go. The rest is scenery.'
January 21, 2024
The idea is creative, sure, and judging by the majority of reviews other people appreciated the writing, but this was a complete miss for me. Another reviewer said she started laughing within the first few pages because of the ridiculous situation depicted (two weird unemployed dudes in ancient Sicily want to get a bunch of Athenian prisoners of war to star in a Euripides play), but I don’t think I’ve ever found anything that’s supposed to be funny less amusing.
The Athenians are basically stuck in a concentration camp and as the story went on the crassness really got to me. Killjoy moment, but the “some Irish blokes transposed into Ancient Greece” dark humour didn’t land for me - it was just dark, the humour seemed misplaced.
I don’t know, maybe this just caught me at the wrong time and maybe it gets more “riotously funny and deeply moving” after my 30% DNF point, but this book actually ruined my mood, so screw it.
The Athenians are basically stuck in a concentration camp and as the story went on the crassness really got to me. Killjoy moment, but the “some Irish blokes transposed into Ancient Greece” dark humour didn’t land for me - it was just dark, the humour seemed misplaced.
I don’t know, maybe this just caught me at the wrong time and maybe it gets more “riotously funny and deeply moving” after my 30% DNF point, but this book actually ruined my mood, so screw it.
April 18, 2024
This book has a Monty Python air that is immediately and continually poked at by the tragic context of the story - that thousands of captured Athenian soldiers are slowly dying of starvation and exposure in a rock quarry-cum-prison in Syracuse in 408 BC, during the Peloponnesian War. The narrator, Lampos (potter by trade, slacker by inclination) is something of a self-deprecating clown, the perfect voice for keeping the comedy/tragedy balance going throughout the book. His Irish slang was a bit surprising at first, but quickly made perfect sense to me - we can only know this character as a modern English-language version of himself, so working class Irish seems like a fine approximation of the 'real' Lampos. His best friend Gelon is an excellent foil for Lampos, leavening his clownishness with a deep melancholy born out of personal tragedy. And, of course, Lampos is more than just a clown (much to his own surprise), as we get to know him better.
Lampos and Gelon tackle the staging of two Euripedes plays with their own personal agendas in mind, and don't reckon with the emotional and political fallout this will have on Syracusans who came close to being annihilated by Athens, until a surprising turnaround in the war. This element of the story takes control in the second half, giving the story more depth and momentum and takes it places I didn't expect. The ending was terrific - so many good books just can't find a way to end that is deserving of all that came before, and I think Lennon nailed this one.
Lampos and Gelon tackle the staging of two Euripedes plays with their own personal agendas in mind, and don't reckon with the emotional and political fallout this will have on Syracusans who came close to being annihilated by Athens, until a surprising turnaround in the war. This element of the story takes control in the second half, giving the story more depth and momentum and takes it places I didn't expect. The ending was terrific - so many good books just can't find a way to end that is deserving of all that came before, and I think Lennon nailed this one.
February 5, 2024
If I told you this book was set at the end of the Peloponnesian war, with thousands of Atheneans imprisoned in a Syracusan quarry to die, and that it is a joyful, hilarious, uplifting story, will you believe me?
The Athenians are walking skeletons, shackled, left to the elements, hated for murdering and sacking Sciliy. One man with a club descends into the quarry to avenge his loss, murdering indiscreetly. It is all too gruesome sounding.
Enter two Syracusan men, unemployed potters. Lampo tells their story in an Irish lilt, of how Gelon’s mad love of the Greek plays, specifically those by Euripides, led them to a wild dream: they would find Atheneans who remembered lines from Medea, feed them, and put on the play in the quarry. When Gelon learns of a new play by Euripides, The Trojan Women, he is determined to present that play as well. For Gelon is aware that with the fall of Athens, the plays may be lost to time.
The pair find backing, obtain sets and costumes, bring the prisoner actors to health, all to experience the marvel of story. With twists of fate, they met both success and horror, and endeavor the heroic.
In the end, the novel left me deeply affected. It is a homage to the power of story to alter individual lives and connect even enemies.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
The Athenians are walking skeletons, shackled, left to the elements, hated for murdering and sacking Sciliy. One man with a club descends into the quarry to avenge his loss, murdering indiscreetly. It is all too gruesome sounding.
Enter two Syracusan men, unemployed potters. Lampo tells their story in an Irish lilt, of how Gelon’s mad love of the Greek plays, specifically those by Euripides, led them to a wild dream: they would find Atheneans who remembered lines from Medea, feed them, and put on the play in the quarry. When Gelon learns of a new play by Euripides, The Trojan Women, he is determined to present that play as well. For Gelon is aware that with the fall of Athens, the plays may be lost to time.
The pair find backing, obtain sets and costumes, bring the prisoner actors to health, all to experience the marvel of story. With twists of fate, they met both success and horror, and endeavor the heroic.
In the end, the novel left me deeply affected. It is a homage to the power of story to alter individual lives and connect even enemies.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
July 9, 2024
Ferdia Lennon's Glorious Exploits links past and present by using an Irish voice for the two men moving the story. Like the Irish, the two are part of a colonised city at war, so there is more than one parallel, which joins Syracuse to Ireland or any other colonised country. By these means, Ferdia Lennon underlines that his story, although set in the past, has tentacles that reach into the present. With human nature being as it is, there is a tendency for what happened in the past to happen again and again ad nauseum in our present and in our future. War is still with us, abuses are still here, anger and revenge are still human traits we have to face. So is art though and through it we have the means of reaching out and 'seeing' the other side. 'Seeing' that the other side is often just a mirror image of us on this side.
A story superbly told by Lennon who narrates it as well. I enjoyed it very much.
A story superbly told by Lennon who narrates it as well. I enjoyed it very much.
December 24, 2025
ben biraz mitoloji cahiliyimdir. oraya dalarsam çıkamam diye de yıllardır bekleyip duruyorum. ferdia lennon’ın “muhteşem zaferler”inde de euripides’in oyunlarının sahnelenme süreci ele alındığı için ay dedim acaba mitolojiye çok mu gönderme var.
o yüzden başladığımda emin değildim, ilk birkaç sayfada emin olmama halim devam etti, sonra “adamım, siktir git, aynen” filan diye konuşan siralüzalı lampo ve arkadaşı gelon’la bir anda kaynaştım. birkaç yıl evvel kaybettikleri savaştan sonra esir düşen atinalılarla medea ve truvalı kadınlar oyununu sahnelemeye çalışmalarını, sahnelemelerini ve sonrasında olanları sular seller gibi okudum.
ve dün yazarın teşekkürünü okuduktan sonra kitabı kapatıp hüngür hüngür ağladım. ki şunu söyleyeyim beni ağlatan kitaplar ajite dramlar değil böyle komik kitaplar olur genelde.
çünkü “muhteşem zaferler” insana, merhamete, vicdana, aşka, iyi olmaya, değişmeye, dönüşmeye dair bir roman. romanla beraber siz de dönüşüyorsunuz. o yüzden ağladım belki de bu kadar. her şey o kadar şefkatli ve o kadar acımasızdı ki.
serkan toy o bıçkın dili çok iyi çevirmiş. ben bu kitap için daha uzun yazarım. dedalus 2025’in en iyi yayınevlerinden biriydi.
o yüzden başladığımda emin değildim, ilk birkaç sayfada emin olmama halim devam etti, sonra “adamım, siktir git, aynen” filan diye konuşan siralüzalı lampo ve arkadaşı gelon’la bir anda kaynaştım. birkaç yıl evvel kaybettikleri savaştan sonra esir düşen atinalılarla medea ve truvalı kadınlar oyununu sahnelemeye çalışmalarını, sahnelemelerini ve sonrasında olanları sular seller gibi okudum.
ve dün yazarın teşekkürünü okuduktan sonra kitabı kapatıp hüngür hüngür ağladım. ki şunu söyleyeyim beni ağlatan kitaplar ajite dramlar değil böyle komik kitaplar olur genelde.
çünkü “muhteşem zaferler” insana, merhamete, vicdana, aşka, iyi olmaya, değişmeye, dönüşmeye dair bir roman. romanla beraber siz de dönüşüyorsunuz. o yüzden ağladım belki de bu kadar. her şey o kadar şefkatli ve o kadar acımasızdı ki.
serkan toy o bıçkın dili çok iyi çevirmiş. ben bu kitap için daha uzun yazarım. dedalus 2025’in en iyi yayınevlerinden biriydi.
January 28, 2025
A surprisingly fun take on war-ravaged Syracuse, Sicily, post the Athenian campaign, brought to live in an Irish vernacular. The power of stories and the impact of trauma on both the victors and the vanquished is contemplated effectively.
Why do you act a fool? You’re not a fool.
I am. I just know it. I reckon that makes me cleverer than most.
Glorious Exploits is carried by the modern language of Lampo, the endearing, street-smart douchebag who narrates the book. He and his friend Gelon are not just dealing with an injury similar to Achilles (which actually turns out to be a clump foot) and a missing wife and dead kid (in the case of Gelon), but also the repercussions of the defeat of Athens invading Sicily. These two unemployed potters love Euripides (impeding their productivity in their vase factory), and with their city council ordering the 7.000 captured Athenians to starvation, locked up in the quarries, they need to act fast to ensure they can still experience theatre. Meanwhile the mishap of others offer an uplifting view to even the poorest Sicilians, with the scars of war and trauma still being very much present.
The city is full of tension between classes and flush with foreign traders, leading to unlikely funding for their improvised theatre directorship. It is clear that the mishap of others offering an uplifting view to even the poorest Sicilians, but also that the scars of war are far from healed. The impact and trauma from war is, especially in chapter 5, touchingly described. Later chapters also go against the levity of the narrative voice of the main character, commenting on slavery and with a performance that brings to mind the concentration camps and how across the ages humanity even at its darkest finds solace in storytelling. Tourism in antiquity is so funny described by Ferdia Lennon, as does his description of crocs for shoes made of crocodile hide.
I definitely see why this is such an acclaimed debut (and this would make such a good meta play if someone would adopt it!), marrying both heavy topics and a singularly fun narrative voice together. Lampo is such an endearing, street-smart douchebag and an impressive character.
Quotes:
Do you make a treaty with a corpse?
But in the end he didn’t know, because there is no future, but just what happens next
I’m not a boy, I’m fucking thirty
Well, then in the words of the great Homer, I shall cave in your skull.
Certainty is the way of cowards and fools
The luckiest man who ever lived died in his mother’s womb
Jason singing something to the effect that all women are cunts
It’s perfect really, everything about them that is fucked and broken fits with the play.
The hearts of men are alike wherever you go. The rest is scenery.
A few is enough, a few is everything
The thing is, there is a big difference between might and will.
His master believed the world a wounded thing, that only could be healed by story.
Why do you act a fool? You’re not a fool.
I am. I just know it. I reckon that makes me cleverer than most.
Glorious Exploits is carried by the modern language of Lampo, the endearing, street-smart douchebag who narrates the book. He and his friend Gelon are not just dealing with an injury similar to Achilles (which actually turns out to be a clump foot) and a missing wife and dead kid (in the case of Gelon), but also the repercussions of the defeat of Athens invading Sicily. These two unemployed potters love Euripides (impeding their productivity in their vase factory), and with their city council ordering the 7.000 captured Athenians to starvation, locked up in the quarries, they need to act fast to ensure they can still experience theatre. Meanwhile the mishap of others offer an uplifting view to even the poorest Sicilians, with the scars of war and trauma still being very much present.
The city is full of tension between classes and flush with foreign traders, leading to unlikely funding for their improvised theatre directorship. It is clear that the mishap of others offering an uplifting view to even the poorest Sicilians, but also that the scars of war are far from healed. The impact and trauma from war is, especially in chapter 5, touchingly described. Later chapters also go against the levity of the narrative voice of the main character, commenting on slavery and with a performance that brings to mind the concentration camps and how across the ages humanity even at its darkest finds solace in storytelling. Tourism in antiquity is so funny described by Ferdia Lennon, as does his description of crocs for shoes made of crocodile hide.
I definitely see why this is such an acclaimed debut (and this would make such a good meta play if someone would adopt it!), marrying both heavy topics and a singularly fun narrative voice together. Lampo is such an endearing, street-smart douchebag and an impressive character.
Quotes:
Do you make a treaty with a corpse?
But in the end he didn’t know, because there is no future, but just what happens next
I’m not a boy, I’m fucking thirty
Well, then in the words of the great Homer, I shall cave in your skull.
Certainty is the way of cowards and fools
The luckiest man who ever lived died in his mother’s womb
Jason singing something to the effect that all women are cunts
It’s perfect really, everything about them that is fucked and broken fits with the play.
The hearts of men are alike wherever you go. The rest is scenery.
A few is enough, a few is everything
The thing is, there is a big difference between might and will.
His master believed the world a wounded thing, that only could be healed by story.
June 16, 2024
This is my favorite book of 2024, so much so that I read it twice. It's the story of two unemployed potters in 412 BC who stage two Euripides plays using only Athenian prisoners of war. The potters are, of course, Irish, and the voice is so funny that it won me over immediately. This book pulls off something quite difficult, which is making the Syracuse of 2400 years ago feel both familiar and foreign at the same time. I loved this so much because it's heartfelt and strange, and I could only think of one person to recommend it to (Riah). It reminds me of Anthony Doerr, so if you liked Cloud Cuckoo Land you will probably like this too.
There is a pacing problem in this book, which is that the last two-thirds gallop along while the first third simply trots. It's more noticeable on a second read. The first part is enjoyable, but once you get to the play's staging, it's so engrossing that you pretty much have to read to the end. I'm also curious as to why the ending plays out as it does .
Also, this book won the 2024 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which means there is a pig named after it. I can't think of higher praise.
There is a pacing problem in this book, which is that the last two-thirds gallop along while the first third simply trots. It's more noticeable on a second read. The first part is enjoyable, but once you get to the play's staging, it's so engrossing that you pretty much have to read to the end. I'm also curious as to why the ending plays out as it does .
Also, this book won the 2024 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse prize for comic fiction, which means there is a pig named after it. I can't think of higher praise.
August 11, 2025
I first spotted this book when it was on a "Daily Deal" discount on audible.co.uk. A debut novel by a young Irish author... well, well... Ancient Sicily... quarries of Syracuse... thousands of defeated Athenians...
WAIT! What was this amazing story I heard in an umpteenth course on the Ancient Greek history and culture? Something about thousands of Athenians enslaved after a disastrous Sicilian expedition, perishing in stone quarries, some of whom survived because they could recite a bit of Euripides...
And this guy based his debut novel on this astounding bit of ancient trivia? Wow! Of course, I just had to buy this "Daily Deal" audiobook.
This was in March, but feels as if it were in another life (for personal reasons). Anyway, I somehow got to listening to the audiobook at the beginning of August, at the blackest ever time in my life.
A novel set in the Ancient Greece told in a contemporary Irish voice? WTF! How on earth could this work? And yet it didn't take me long to see that it did work, and brilliantly so. After all, why would a neutral English voice be closer to the Ancient Greek voice than a contemporary Irish one?
It's all about the mood, the tone, the verisimilitude of style and events, and Ferdia Lennon manages to balance between contemporary tone and convincing historicity like a true virtuoso. He certainly puts to brilliant usage both his BA in History and Classics and his MA in Prose Fiction: unlike many an author of countless modern pseudo-historical bestsellers, he knows what he is talking about when he masterfully incorporates into the story the minutia of the Ancient Greek experience; he is also very much aware that writing in a contemporary Irish voice doesn't mean that all characters should spout out f-words with equal frequency -- what totally makes sense for a humble potter doesn't work for a rich art collector.
"Glorious Exploits" turned out to be the best book I read this year, in spite of me coming to it at the darkest time ever in my personal life.
As I thought about writing this review, I just had to look up the historical record/legend/hearsay that the author used as the springboard for his imagination, the "factual" foundation upon which he constructed this fascinating tale, quite worthy of Euripides himself.
So here it is, the springboard -- just three paragraphs from Plutarch's Lives:
Plutarch, Lives, Nicias 29:
Most of the Athenians perished in the stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily rations being a pint of barley meal and a half-pint of water; but not a few were stolen away and sold into slavery, or succeeded in passing themselves off for serving men. These, when they were sold, were branded in the forehead with the mark of a horse,—yes, there were some freemen who actually suffered this indignity in addition to their servitude.
But even these were helped by their restrained and decorous bearing; some were speedily set free, and some remained with their masters in positions of honor. Some also were saved for the sake of Euripides. For the Sicilians, it would seem, more than any other Hellenes outside the home land, had a yearning fondness for his poetry. They were forever learning by heart the little specimens and morsels of it which visitors brought them from time to time, and imparting them to one another with fond delight.
In the present case, at any rate, they say that many Athenians who reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affectionate hearts, and recounted to him, some that they had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what they remembered of his works; and some that when they were roaming about after the final battle they had received food and drink for singing some of his choral hymns. Surely, then, one need not wonder at the story that the Caunians, when a vessel of theirs would have put in at the harbor of Syracuse to escape pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept outside, until, on being asked if they knew any songs of Euripides, they declared that they did indeed, and were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel safely in.
Sicily and the Peloponnesian War. (Image credit: Translator was Kenmayer, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
P.S. As I was listening to the audiobook (by the way, listening to Ferdia Lennon's perfectly nuanced narration of his own text is a huge bonus), a fellow reader contacted me here on GR
asking what I thought about the ending because he had feelings, as he put it. I'm pretty sure he also befriended me on GR, although I can't vouch for this. Anyway, I said I was still at the beginning but would share my thoughts about the ending when I get there. But now I cannot find any trace either of this guy, or of his message. A little GR mystery... Anyway, regarding the ending, I think it is in total harmony with the rest of the story. I too have feelings, but this is probably why
Apulian red figured volute krater, circa 330 - 310 BC, Canosa di Puglia, now in Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen. Detail showing Medea, about to kill one oh her sons on an altar (the other son is being rescued by a soldier, to the left). At the center is Medea’s grandfather, the god Helios, hauled by two snakes, bearing two flaming torches and glimpsing the murder’s scene. This is labelled ΟΙΣΤΡΟΣ meaning "frenzy" or "mania". Rushing up from the right is Jason, unable to stop Medea from slaying their son. (Image credit: Deiadameian, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Marble bas-relief representing sitting Euripides, a woman who gives him a theater mask, and Dionysius on a pedestal. Between 1st century BCE and 1st century CE. (Image credit: John-Grégoire, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.)
Read in 2025.
WAIT! What was this amazing story I heard in an umpteenth course on the Ancient Greek history and culture? Something about thousands of Athenians enslaved after a disastrous Sicilian expedition, perishing in stone quarries, some of whom survived because they could recite a bit of Euripides...
And this guy based his debut novel on this astounding bit of ancient trivia? Wow! Of course, I just had to buy this "Daily Deal" audiobook.
This was in March, but feels as if it were in another life (for personal reasons). Anyway, I somehow got to listening to the audiobook at the beginning of August, at the blackest ever time in my life.
A novel set in the Ancient Greece told in a contemporary Irish voice? WTF! How on earth could this work? And yet it didn't take me long to see that it did work, and brilliantly so. After all, why would a neutral English voice be closer to the Ancient Greek voice than a contemporary Irish one?
It's all about the mood, the tone, the verisimilitude of style and events, and Ferdia Lennon manages to balance between contemporary tone and convincing historicity like a true virtuoso. He certainly puts to brilliant usage both his BA in History and Classics and his MA in Prose Fiction: unlike many an author of countless modern pseudo-historical bestsellers, he knows what he is talking about when he masterfully incorporates into the story the minutia of the Ancient Greek experience; he is also very much aware that writing in a contemporary Irish voice doesn't mean that all characters should spout out f-words with equal frequency -- what totally makes sense for a humble potter doesn't work for a rich art collector.
"Glorious Exploits" turned out to be the best book I read this year, in spite of me coming to it at the darkest time ever in my personal life.
As I thought about writing this review, I just had to look up the historical record/legend/hearsay that the author used as the springboard for his imagination, the "factual" foundation upon which he constructed this fascinating tale, quite worthy of Euripides himself.
So here it is, the springboard -- just three paragraphs from Plutarch's Lives:
Plutarch, Lives, Nicias 29:
Most of the Athenians perished in the stone quarries of disease and evil fare, their daily rations being a pint of barley meal and a half-pint of water; but not a few were stolen away and sold into slavery, or succeeded in passing themselves off for serving men. These, when they were sold, were branded in the forehead with the mark of a horse,—yes, there were some freemen who actually suffered this indignity in addition to their servitude.
But even these were helped by their restrained and decorous bearing; some were speedily set free, and some remained with their masters in positions of honor. Some also were saved for the sake of Euripides. For the Sicilians, it would seem, more than any other Hellenes outside the home land, had a yearning fondness for his poetry. They were forever learning by heart the little specimens and morsels of it which visitors brought them from time to time, and imparting them to one another with fond delight.
In the present case, at any rate, they say that many Athenians who reached home in safety greeted Euripides with affectionate hearts, and recounted to him, some that they had been set free from slavery for rehearsing what they remembered of his works; and some that when they were roaming about after the final battle they had received food and drink for singing some of his choral hymns. Surely, then, one need not wonder at the story that the Caunians, when a vessel of theirs would have put in at the harbor of Syracuse to escape pursuit by pirates, were not admitted at first, but kept outside, until, on being asked if they knew any songs of Euripides, they declared that they did indeed, and were for this reason suffered to bring their vessel safely in.
Sicily and the Peloponnesian War. (Image credit: Translator was Kenmayer, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)
P.S. As I was listening to the audiobook (by the way, listening to Ferdia Lennon's perfectly nuanced narration of his own text is a huge bonus), a fellow reader contacted me here on GR
asking what I thought about the ending because he had feelings, as he put it. I'm pretty sure he also befriended me on GR, although I can't vouch for this. Anyway, I said I was still at the beginning but would share my thoughts about the ending when I get there. But now I cannot find any trace either of this guy, or of his message. A little GR mystery... Anyway, regarding the ending, I think it is in total harmony with the rest of the story. I too have feelings, but this is probably why
Apulian red figured volute krater, circa 330 - 310 BC, Canosa di Puglia, now in Munich, Staatliche Antikensammlungen. Detail showing Medea, about to kill one oh her sons on an altar (the other son is being rescued by a soldier, to the left). At the center is Medea’s grandfather, the god Helios, hauled by two snakes, bearing two flaming torches and glimpsing the murder’s scene. This is labelled ΟΙΣΤΡΟΣ meaning "frenzy" or "mania". Rushing up from the right is Jason, unable to stop Medea from slaying their son. (Image credit: Deiadameian, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Marble bas-relief representing sitting Euripides, a woman who gives him a theater mask, and Dionysius on a pedestal. Between 1st century BCE and 1st century CE. (Image credit: John-Grégoire, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.)
Read in 2025.
March 12, 2024
I have no idea how this book came to my attention, but it had such a brilliant premise I couldn't resist reading. Two out of work Sicilian potters attempt to put on Euripides plays in the quarry that is currently holding the remains of an Athenian army during the Peloponnesian war. In doing so explore how art can bridge a gap between enemies and evoke emotions buried deep. Add in a distinct Irish dialect to the whole thing, and it's utterly bonkers.
Lampo in particular is a stand out character, the light relief to Gelon's somber moods, at the start of the book he's really just there because he has nothing better to do. Riding on Gelon's love for theatre and his passion to show his local community how evocative plays can be, Lampo learns and grows such much as a character by seeing first hand what putting on these plays, as some respite from the brutalities of war, can do.
This gets 3 stars for me mainly due to the pacing. For such a short book it's a bit all of the place in terms of developing the story, with a slow meandering pace to start followed by a rather frantic ending. I also wanted more world building, and to see more of a juxtaposition between the quiet village life with the horrors of the recent wars. However overall, this was such a unique read that was made all the more special by having the characters be so obviously Irish, yet stuck in 431BC Sicily. An absurd concept, but one that really made the characters that bit more realistic and endearing.
Lampo in particular is a stand out character, the light relief to Gelon's somber moods, at the start of the book he's really just there because he has nothing better to do. Riding on Gelon's love for theatre and his passion to show his local community how evocative plays can be, Lampo learns and grows such much as a character by seeing first hand what putting on these plays, as some respite from the brutalities of war, can do.
This gets 3 stars for me mainly due to the pacing. For such a short book it's a bit all of the place in terms of developing the story, with a slow meandering pace to start followed by a rather frantic ending. I also wanted more world building, and to see more of a juxtaposition between the quiet village life with the horrors of the recent wars. However overall, this was such a unique read that was made all the more special by having the characters be so obviously Irish, yet stuck in 431BC Sicily. An absurd concept, but one that really made the characters that bit more realistic and endearing.
August 11, 2024
My brother and I loved reviewing Glorious Exploits on our YouTube channel! The Brothers Gwynne
What a daft, subtly powerful book. It's hilarious at times, completely mad, incredibly unique and there some extremely emotional scenes towards the end. It really sweeps the carpet from under your feet.
Two Syracusean potters out of work, a quarry full of Athenian prisoners, why not put on a Euripydes play? The premise is bonkers but the delivery is groundbreaking.
What a daft, subtly powerful book. It's hilarious at times, completely mad, incredibly unique and there some extremely emotional scenes towards the end. It really sweeps the carpet from under your feet.
Two Syracusean potters out of work, a quarry full of Athenian prisoners, why not put on a Euripydes play? The premise is bonkers but the delivery is groundbreaking.
October 6, 2025
Çok beğendim. Hatta uzun süredir okuduğum en yaratıcı roman diyebilirim. Antik dünyayı bugünün diliyle konuşturmak gibi zor bir işi hem doğal hem de sahici bir tonda kotarması yetmezmiş gibi bir tiyatro oyununun savaş esirleri tarafından sahnelenmesi üzerinden “sanat ne işe yarar?” sorusunu canlı tutuyor. Mizah var, öfke var ama en çok da merhamet var. Dostluk, açlık, aşağılanma ve sanatın dönüştürücü gücü aynı sayfalarda buluşuyor. Kısacası hem kalbe hem akla dokunan ve “olmayacak” bir işi oldurmuş çok iyi bir ilk roman Muhteşem Zaferler.
February 20, 2025
I once read that there are only two types of stories, that all literature can be divided or assembled under these: A man goes on a journey OR a stranger comes to town. In this novel there is a little of both. First the strangers in the guise of the Athenians who are imprisoned due to overstepping, as often happens in war, when the final battle in Syracuse is lost and the prisoners of war are relegated to the deep limestone quarries to ultimately die of their wounds or starve to death. Along come two young men Syracusans in love with art and the idea that a final play of Euripides might be enacted by this ragtag bunch of Athenian prisoners.
It is the story of a quest and the hero is unlikely--isn't that the best kind. Not all the pieces fall into place and it's happy every after takes a little thought to be appreciated. But oh my the whole is so much better than the parts at first seem. I almost DNFed early on as the voice of the narrator did not fit and had none of the nobleness or solemness I had been expecting. Yet as it continued the narration by the author Ferdia Lennon gave the story a reality it might otherwise have lacked.
In the end it is a ballad to love, which drives all men and for all who believe:"the world a wounded thing that can only be healed by story."
Yes, all 5 stars for this one
P.S. Thanks to Ben Reads Good (www.youtube.com/@benreadsgood) for singing its praises so highly that I continued on.
It is the story of a quest and the hero is unlikely--isn't that the best kind. Not all the pieces fall into place and it's happy every after takes a little thought to be appreciated. But oh my the whole is so much better than the parts at first seem. I almost DNFed early on as the voice of the narrator did not fit and had none of the nobleness or solemness I had been expecting. Yet as it continued the narration by the author Ferdia Lennon gave the story a reality it might otherwise have lacked.
In the end it is a ballad to love, which drives all men and for all who believe:"the world a wounded thing that can only be healed by story."
Yes, all 5 stars for this one
P.S. Thanks to Ben Reads Good (www.youtube.com/@benreadsgood) for singing its praises so highly that I continued on.
December 31, 2024
Gelon and Lampo are unemployed potters in Syracuse, ancient Sicily. The Peloponnesian war rages and in a surprising turn of events, a Greek offence has failed to besiege Syracuse. And our boys have scored a sweet gig as guards of the quarry, the makeshift prison for the thousands of captured Athenians.
There are so many moving parts that could be this novel’s downfall. It's a mismatched buddy comedy with a large supporting cast, written in modern Irish vernacular and narrated by the goofy Lampo. But in a very Greek and very Irish way, Lennon perfectly understands how thin the line between tragedy and comedy is.
Because even the Syracusians must admit their enemy creates art like no other.
Through prisoners trading poetry for morsels, news of a new, never seen outside of Greece Euripides play reaches the Homer-mad Gelon. The play is The Women of Troy, written in reaction to the particularly brutal siege of Melos by Athens in 416 BCE.
And so in Syracuse—this grief-stricken and traumatised populace ravaged by the Greeks—a group of Athenians who have been starved and beaten to within an inch of their lives are to perform.
‘“It's poetry we're doing,” he whispers. “It wouldn't mean a thing if it were easy.”’
This ancient world is the vibrant multi-cultural tapestry of a metropolis, brought to life through witty prose and teeterings into the absurd. Democratic youths—the nepo baby sons of politicians and philosophers—posture in bars. There are the enslaved people: Libyans who have become artisans and a Lydian woman who recalls the ingenuity of the Persian courts. One destitute bard refuses to sell a piece of string to a mysterious seafarer, no matter what he is offered. I even recognised the pan-Celtic god of thunder, which was just so fun and speaks to the broader theme of storytelling as essentially connective.
What is glory if not a twisting, slippery thing… Gelon has lost his wife and child, and Lampo’s mobility is hindered by his lame leg. But neither fought in the war. So what lesson is there to be found in the mundanity of their suffering?
I find stories on the power of stories to rarely shine. There's often a triteness and indulgence that becomes flattening. But Glorious Exploits simply feels too clever to fall into cliché.
‘But still, a tragedy without a tune is like a sun that doesn’t give off heat; dead and nothing will grow from it. When men go to war, they do it to music. When they set sails for better shores and row into the vast blue, they do it to music. Even our hearts beat to some rhythm. And the director who neglects it neglects what makes us men.’
This is about art and myth not only transcending but being the antidote to propaganda. Warmth and wit balance out the inevitable darkness, and the emotional gut punch remains tender long after the final page. Euripidean and Homeric, sure, but also decidedly Lennon.
Also, Lampo buys crocodile boots at the market and then refers to them as his crocs for the rest of the novel. Like…
There are so many moving parts that could be this novel’s downfall. It's a mismatched buddy comedy with a large supporting cast, written in modern Irish vernacular and narrated by the goofy Lampo. But in a very Greek and very Irish way, Lennon perfectly understands how thin the line between tragedy and comedy is.
Because even the Syracusians must admit their enemy creates art like no other.
Through prisoners trading poetry for morsels, news of a new, never seen outside of Greece Euripides play reaches the Homer-mad Gelon. The play is The Women of Troy, written in reaction to the particularly brutal siege of Melos by Athens in 416 BCE.
And so in Syracuse—this grief-stricken and traumatised populace ravaged by the Greeks—a group of Athenians who have been starved and beaten to within an inch of their lives are to perform.
‘“It's poetry we're doing,” he whispers. “It wouldn't mean a thing if it were easy.”’
This ancient world is the vibrant multi-cultural tapestry of a metropolis, brought to life through witty prose and teeterings into the absurd. Democratic youths—the nepo baby sons of politicians and philosophers—posture in bars. There are the enslaved people: Libyans who have become artisans and a Lydian woman who recalls the ingenuity of the Persian courts. One destitute bard refuses to sell a piece of string to a mysterious seafarer, no matter what he is offered. I even recognised the pan-Celtic god of thunder, which was just so fun and speaks to the broader theme of storytelling as essentially connective.
What is glory if not a twisting, slippery thing… Gelon has lost his wife and child, and Lampo’s mobility is hindered by his lame leg. But neither fought in the war. So what lesson is there to be found in the mundanity of their suffering?
I find stories on the power of stories to rarely shine. There's often a triteness and indulgence that becomes flattening. But Glorious Exploits simply feels too clever to fall into cliché.
‘But still, a tragedy without a tune is like a sun that doesn’t give off heat; dead and nothing will grow from it. When men go to war, they do it to music. When they set sails for better shores and row into the vast blue, they do it to music. Even our hearts beat to some rhythm. And the director who neglects it neglects what makes us men.’
This is about art and myth not only transcending but being the antidote to propaganda. Warmth and wit balance out the inevitable darkness, and the emotional gut punch remains tender long after the final page. Euripidean and Homeric, sure, but also decidedly Lennon.
Also, Lampo buys crocodile boots at the market and then refers to them as his crocs for the rest of the novel. Like…
April 13, 2026
Allahım, ne tatlı kitap, ne tatlı! Bir kitabı kolay kolay "tatlı" diye nitelemem ama bu kitap için aklıma gelen ilk sözcük bu valla. Çok yaratıcı, çok tatlı, müthiş özgün bir metin Muhteşem Zaferler.
İrlandalı yazar Ferdia Lennon'un öyküsü MÖ 412'de Sicilya'nın Siraküza kentinde geçiyor. Ama o dönemden okumaya alışık olduğumuz öykülerden son derece farklı bir metinle karşı karşıyayız. Bir tragedya veya epik bir kahramanlık öyküsü anlatmıyor bize Lennon, sıradan insanları çıkarıyor karşımıza.
Sicilya'yı fethetmek üzere yola çıkan Atinalıların meşhur yenilgisinin hemen ertesinde geçiyor olaylar. Beklenmeyen olmuş ve Siraküzalılar Atinalıları yenmeyi başarmış. Bir dolu askeri bir taş ocağına kapatmış ve esir almışlar. Vaziyet buyken iki ana karakterimiz, iki iyi dost Gelon ve Lampo bir derde düşüyor: bir oyun sergilemek. Spartalıların bu yenilgiden sonra Atina'yı belki tamamen yerle bir edeceklerini düşünüyorlar ve bununla beraber Atina'nın temsil ettiklerinin tamamen ortadan kalkma ihtimali onları korkutuyor; o nedenle Euripidies'in oyunlarının son kez de olsa sahnelenmesine kafayı takmışlar. Bunun için esir Atinalılardan bir kadro oluşturup taş ocağında oyunu sahnelemek üzere işe koyuluyorlar.
Kahramanlarımız sanatçı filan değil; sadece tiyatroya tutkunlar ve düşman düşman da olsa, ürettiği sanata saygı duymaktan imtina etmeyecek kadar sağduyulular. Ve işte oyun yönetmeye dair hiçbir ley bilmeyen bu iki sıradan adam, bu dürtüyle her şeyi göze alıp bu işe girişiyorlar. Sonrası artık spoiler olur.
Lennon çok müthiş bir iş yapıyor ve 2500 yıl öncede geçen romanını son derece bugüne ait bir dille yazıyor, karakterlerini de öyle konuşturuyor. Birbirlerine küfür edişleri, diyaloglarının doğallığı, atışmalarının sahiciliği muazzam yazılmış. Okurken sık sık Banshees of Inisherin filmindeki diyaloglar geldi aklıma; bir yanıyla son derece İrlandalı, bir yanıyla son derece antik Yunan bir metin bu; müthiş özgünlüğü işte buradan geliyor. İnsana dair hikayelerin her çağda anlatılabileceğini ispatlayan; aşka, dostluğa, vicdana, tutkuya dair nefis ve hem çok komik hem çok dokunaklı bir anlatı. Bayıldım!
İrlandalı yazar Ferdia Lennon'un öyküsü MÖ 412'de Sicilya'nın Siraküza kentinde geçiyor. Ama o dönemden okumaya alışık olduğumuz öykülerden son derece farklı bir metinle karşı karşıyayız. Bir tragedya veya epik bir kahramanlık öyküsü anlatmıyor bize Lennon, sıradan insanları çıkarıyor karşımıza.
Sicilya'yı fethetmek üzere yola çıkan Atinalıların meşhur yenilgisinin hemen ertesinde geçiyor olaylar. Beklenmeyen olmuş ve Siraküzalılar Atinalıları yenmeyi başarmış. Bir dolu askeri bir taş ocağına kapatmış ve esir almışlar. Vaziyet buyken iki ana karakterimiz, iki iyi dost Gelon ve Lampo bir derde düşüyor: bir oyun sergilemek. Spartalıların bu yenilgiden sonra Atina'yı belki tamamen yerle bir edeceklerini düşünüyorlar ve bununla beraber Atina'nın temsil ettiklerinin tamamen ortadan kalkma ihtimali onları korkutuyor; o nedenle Euripidies'in oyunlarının son kez de olsa sahnelenmesine kafayı takmışlar. Bunun için esir Atinalılardan bir kadro oluşturup taş ocağında oyunu sahnelemek üzere işe koyuluyorlar.
Kahramanlarımız sanatçı filan değil; sadece tiyatroya tutkunlar ve düşman düşman da olsa, ürettiği sanata saygı duymaktan imtina etmeyecek kadar sağduyulular. Ve işte oyun yönetmeye dair hiçbir ley bilmeyen bu iki sıradan adam, bu dürtüyle her şeyi göze alıp bu işe girişiyorlar. Sonrası artık spoiler olur.
Lennon çok müthiş bir iş yapıyor ve 2500 yıl öncede geçen romanını son derece bugüne ait bir dille yazıyor, karakterlerini de öyle konuşturuyor. Birbirlerine küfür edişleri, diyaloglarının doğallığı, atışmalarının sahiciliği muazzam yazılmış. Okurken sık sık Banshees of Inisherin filmindeki diyaloglar geldi aklıma; bir yanıyla son derece İrlandalı, bir yanıyla son derece antik Yunan bir metin bu; müthiş özgünlüğü işte buradan geliyor. İnsana dair hikayelerin her çağda anlatılabileceğini ispatlayan; aşka, dostluğa, vicdana, tutkuya dair nefis ve hem çok komik hem çok dokunaklı bir anlatı. Bayıldım!
December 13, 2024
RATING BREAKDOWN
Characters: 4⭐️
Setting: 3⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 4⭐️
Emotional Impact: 4⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 4⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 4⭐️
The first thing to note before you read is that the writing style is very unique! The story takes place in ancient Syracuse following the defeat of the Athenians. However, the story is written by a modern-day Irishman, and all of the language sounds like it! The author also narrates the audiobook. Because the story is written in first person narrative, it can be quite jarring to experience an Irishman from the 21st century who you are supposed to believe is a man from ancient Syracuse. I acclimated to this stylistic choice eventually, but it did take a while. It is clearly intentional and accurately depicts the spirit of the main character, making him even more relatable for the modern reader. It also adds quite a bit of humor. But ultimately, if you read historic fiction to be immersed in a historic setting and want your prose to feel somewhat period-accurate, this may not work for you.
However, if the writing style works for you, this is an incredible story about the human spirit, art, hope, and the kind of crazy it takes to be an optimist in an imperfect world. I felt moved and triumphant in the end, and very emotionally invested and satisfied. For the right reader, this is a masterpiece.
Characters: 4⭐️
Setting: 3⭐️
Plot: 4⭐️
Themes: 4⭐️
Emotional Impact: 4⭐️
Personal Enjoyment: 4⭐️
Total Rounded Average: 4⭐️
The first thing to note before you read is that the writing style is very unique! The story takes place in ancient Syracuse following the defeat of the Athenians. However, the story is written by a modern-day Irishman, and all of the language sounds like it! The author also narrates the audiobook. Because the story is written in first person narrative, it can be quite jarring to experience an Irishman from the 21st century who you are supposed to believe is a man from ancient Syracuse. I acclimated to this stylistic choice eventually, but it did take a while. It is clearly intentional and accurately depicts the spirit of the main character, making him even more relatable for the modern reader. It also adds quite a bit of humor. But ultimately, if you read historic fiction to be immersed in a historic setting and want your prose to feel somewhat period-accurate, this may not work for you.
However, if the writing style works for you, this is an incredible story about the human spirit, art, hope, and the kind of crazy it takes to be an optimist in an imperfect world. I felt moved and triumphant in the end, and very emotionally invested and satisfied. For the right reader, this is a masterpiece.
April 4, 2024
3.5
Lampo, is a Sicilian potter who speaks in the Irish vernacular and he is just so gloriously amusing in this romp set in Sicily in 412BC. I use the word 'romp' cautiously as "harrowing morality tale" could equally be applied. Although this book sounds like it shouldn't work it really does, particularly if your comfortable with the idea of a Monty Python, Asterix and Obelix and Kevin Barry mash-up.
Is it a tiny bit draggy in places ?, yes. Might I have done better with a familiarity with the Classics or at least Euripides ?- yes ( the author has a BA in Classics which is evident ). Still this was mostly all pure pleasure.
Lampo, is a Sicilian potter who speaks in the Irish vernacular and he is just so gloriously amusing in this romp set in Sicily in 412BC. I use the word 'romp' cautiously as "harrowing morality tale" could equally be applied. Although this book sounds like it shouldn't work it really does, particularly if your comfortable with the idea of a Monty Python, Asterix and Obelix and Kevin Barry mash-up.
Is it a tiny bit draggy in places ?, yes. Might I have done better with a familiarity with the Classics or at least Euripides ?- yes ( the author has a BA in Classics which is evident ). Still this was mostly all pure pleasure.
November 10, 2025
Bu yıl okuduğum en güzel, en çarpıcı roman, çok farklı. Siraküza’da içkiye düşkün, farklı fiziksel ve ruhsal karakterlerdeki iki çömlekçi, Lampo ve Gelon’un hikayesi. Antik Yunan mitlerinden ve trajedilerinden beslenen, Euripides’in ön planda olduğu bir kurgu. Böyle bir hikaye kurgulamak bana olağanüstü yaratıcı geldi.
O dönemin ruhunu anlatmasını bir kenara koyuyorum, insanın mekan ve zaman farketmeksizin ne kadar şaşırtıcı, dirençli ve gizemli olduğunu düşünüyorsunuz. Mizahla hüznü çok güzel kaynaştıran trajikomik bir anlatı. İnsana ilşkin herşey, çok şey, tam da insanın kendisi. Serkan Toy’un çevirisi mükemmel. Mutlaka okuyun derim.
O dönemin ruhunu anlatmasını bir kenara koyuyorum, insanın mekan ve zaman farketmeksizin ne kadar şaşırtıcı, dirençli ve gizemli olduğunu düşünüyorsunuz. Mizahla hüznü çok güzel kaynaştıran trajikomik bir anlatı. İnsana ilşkin herşey, çok şey, tam da insanın kendisi. Serkan Toy’un çevirisi mükemmel. Mutlaka okuyun derim.
May 2, 2025
Who knew Greek tragedy could be so fun? I had a blast
October 15, 2025
Якщо вам до вподоби як і мені перекази давньогрецьких міфів від Стівена Фрая, тоді ця книга однозначно мастхев! Автор прекрасно імплементував сучасну мову в історичний контекст і зміг поєднати чудовий гумор із жорсткою трагедією. Раджу і сподіваюсь на появу в українському перекладі, нам таке треба!
February 9, 2025
4.25 stars
*** I have a YouTube channel now! Check it out here. ***
Set in Syracuse, amid the the Peloponnesian War, Glorious Exploits follows two friends Gelon and Lampo as they set out on a quest to recruit the Athenian slaves working in the limestone quarries to star in their production of Euripides' plays. When I first started this book, I must admit, I wondered if it wasn't trying to be too "literary," if it was asserting its "greatness" prematurely. After finishing it, I reread the beginning and totally changed my mind.
This is one of the most moving text I've read about the value of a life, art, and exploitation. It is all tied perfectly together by one of the most original and compelling narrators I've read in fiction, Lampo. None of this would've worked without him because he peels back what another narrator would've made into a shiny or grotesque veneer. Lampo makes this story REAL.
Incredible book.
*** I have a YouTube channel now! Check it out here. ***
Set in Syracuse, amid the the Peloponnesian War, Glorious Exploits follows two friends Gelon and Lampo as they set out on a quest to recruit the Athenian slaves working in the limestone quarries to star in their production of Euripides' plays. When I first started this book, I must admit, I wondered if it wasn't trying to be too "literary," if it was asserting its "greatness" prematurely. After finishing it, I reread the beginning and totally changed my mind.
This is one of the most moving text I've read about the value of a life, art, and exploitation. It is all tied perfectly together by one of the most original and compelling narrators I've read in fiction, Lampo. None of this would've worked without him because he peels back what another narrator would've made into a shiny or grotesque veneer. Lampo makes this story REAL.
Incredible book.
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