Author

Irish. BA in history from UC Dublin. MA in prose fiction from University of East Anglia. This is his first novel.

Setting

Syracuse, Sicily, 412 BC

Background

The Peloponnesian war (more correctly the Second Peloponnesian war) was fought between Athens and Sparta between 431BC and 404BC. (They took a lot of R&R.) In case you were wondering, the Peloponnesian peninsula is the southern most part of Greece, the bit than hangs down into the Mediterranean. Sicily was part of Greece back then too and Syracuse was the biggest town (Archimedes was born there). Athens tried to capture it, enjoyed some early success, then got routed by the Spartans. The Spartans didn’t slaughter the captured Athenian soldiers straightaway. Instead, they imprisoned them in a quarry and left them to from heat, thirst, starvation, disease, all of the above.

Precis

Gelon and Lampo are unemployed potters in Syracuse. Gelon loves Greek plays and worries that the Athenian defeat will lead to the demise of Greek drama. He and his mate venture in into the quarry with food, water and wine and promise to bring more if the prisoners recite lines from plays. They eventually persuade the starving Athenians to stage ‘Medea’ and ‘The Trojan Women’ by Euripides. Themes include friendship, the horrors of war, grief and the unifying value of art and literature. And there’s a happy ending.

Writing

First person by Lampo. The prose is crisp, well-paced and engaging, the dialogue (apart from the plays) is contemporary with an Irish flavour and sense of humour. Shades of Kevin Barry. Roddy Clarke too in the dialogue.

Bottom line

You have never read anything quite like this