Published by Henry Holt and Co. on March 26, 2024

I never tire of reading, but I do get tired of reading the same plots in book after book. Readers who think (in the words of Monty Python) it’s time “for something completely different” might want to check out Glorious Exploits. The novel is funny, surprising, and poignant.

The story is set in Syracuse early in 4th century BC. Syracuse at that point was populated by Greeks, but the prose is 21st century British (“Still a gobshite, I see.”).

Toward the end of the 5th century BC, Syracuse was invaded by Athens. With the help of Sparta, Syracuse defeated the Athenians. The story begins with captured Athenians imprisoned in a quarry, where they are visited by Lampo and Gelon, two unemployed potters. Like most Greeks in Syracuse, Lampo and Gelon are fans of Athenian theater. They are convinced that nobody does Euripides like the Athenians. On a visit to the quarry, Gelon gets it into his head to put on a production of Medea using the Athenians to act out the play. He finds a few who have acting experience and who know the parts. Lampo is taken with a green-eyed Athenian who he believes will be perfect for the part of Jason.

Lampo is even more taken with Lyra, a slave from Lydia (a kingdom that once existed on land that is now in Turkey). Lyra is owned by the proprietor of a tavern that Lampo often visits. Lampo falls in love with Lyra and promises to one day buy her freedom. That will be a difficult promise for an unemployed potter to keep, although it gives Lampo a resolve and purpose that he previously lacked.

Equal parts comedy and tragedy, the story follows Lampo as he works with Gelon to produce Medea. The captive Athenians are slowly starving to death, but the actors are incentivized by bread and wine. As Gelon and Lampo are casting the roles, they find an Athenian who not only knows Medea, but has acted in Euripides newest play, Trojan Women. Gelon believes that Athens is doomed and decides they must save the new play by bringing it to life. To that end, they plan to produce both plays.

Their plans come to the attention of a wealthy businessman named Tuireann who is passing through Syracuse. He provides the gold that Gelon and Lempo need to purchase sets and costumes to stage the play correctly. Yet not all Syracusans are pleased that the Athenians who killed their family members during a siege of the city are being treated so well. Will the plays ever be produced in the face of such hostility?

Glorious Exploits is in equal parts a comedy and a tragedy. Euripides (we are told at the end) “was ever in love with misfortune and believed the world a wounded thing that can only be healed by story.” Most of the story in Glorious Exploits unfolds between the invasion of Syracuse by Athens and its invasion by Carthage. During the years when Syracuse is free from invaders, Gelon and Lampo contrive to heal their wounded city with stories told by Euripides. Misfortune does indeed seem to be the human condition, particularly for slaves and captured soldiers who are starving to death in a pit. Some of them, at least, might be healed before the story ends.

The story told by Ferdia Lennon also has healing value. It is a story about the redemptive power of love and a story of the enduring power of Lampo’s rocky friendship with Gelon, but it is also the story of an unlikely friendship between Lampo and a conquered Athenian. The novel eventually becomes a story of how we should treat our enemies and whether we should think of other humans as enemies at all — at least in moments when we are not trying to kill each other.

Glorious Exploits has everything this reader could want: silliness, drama, excitement, unexpected twists, a story worth telling and lessons worth learning. The story is told in pitch-perfect prose that restores ancient Syracuse to its momentary glory. The year is young, but this is the best book I’ve read so far in 2024.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

This isn't a story for everybody, but for the right person it'll be an absolute gem.

I don't think I've ever read a book that could be described as "a romp through ancient Greece." And I've certainly never read one that combined ancient Greek theater with a modern Irish dialect. It's a combination that could only work with a skillful writer, and here, Ferdia Lennon certainly is.

In the book Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennonn we meet two friends with time on their hands and tired of staying out at the inns Jealon loves the Greek tragedies and the other Lampo, is loyal to a fault one day they decide to go meet the Athenian slaves left in a quarry to starve to death. At first they are there just to waste time but soon a plan comes about in before they know it what starts out as entertainment becomes a mission of humanity. This book had seemingly two endings one was bittersweet and one was just so sad but it all made for one great book. I love a historical fiction book that has that historical feel and usually when there or swearwords in a historical book it takes me out of that era but that didn’t happen with Glorious Exploits I loved Lampo and jealous friendship lampos love for Lira The writing style but especially the author‘s grasp on the time and place the book is set. This is a great book and one I definitely recommend please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

Charmingly anachronistic in its language, GLORIOUS EXPLOITS was slow to get my attention but eventually unputdownable. Ultimately the message is one of art above all and how even under the ugliest and worst circumstances can some beauty and love find a way.

Take a couple Syracusans back millennia ago. They decide on a whim to put on a play using defeated Athenians who have been chucked into a quarry to starve to death. Pen the entire novel not in an old fashioned voice but in an Irish one belonging to today. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Maybe it is, but it works.

I was actually offered this book rather than having requested it, and I was a tad skittish, partly because of the cover, partly because I’m more of a modern history gal, not an ancient history gal. If you’re like me: don’t let either of these things stop you. The subject matter transcends all of that. It’s about seeing an enemy but finding a friend, and maybe pushing back against brutality and cruelty instead of seeking punishment, even if you have lost loved ones and think you’re owed vengeance. And, of course, it’s about how art can transcend all else, how it has the capacity to soothe, to entertain, and to even save.

Lampo, the narrator, seems a trifle selfish at the onset, but he grows into this character willing to work hard for love and to risk everything for Paches, an Athenian who, by all rights, he ought to hate and scorn. Gelon, shot through with a ribbon of melancholy over the losses he has suffered, has empathy and compassion to suit ten men, and pulls himself up again even when things seem bleakest. They were both such good characters (and Paches, too! I loved Paches!), but most of the funny bits are provided by Lampo.

Everything kicks off when the pivotal play is performed, and after that moment, I was racing through the pages on tenterhooks, worried about what would happen and desperate to find out as quickly as I could. The book is funny, it’s sad, it’s grim, it’s brutal, but above all—it’s hopeful.

I received a copy of this book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My favorite part about this book has to be that goofy cover with the googly eyes on the Greek statue. That is what initially caught my attention. Marketing tactic successful.

This reads like a Greek tragedy. 2 anti heroes in Syracuse are visiting Athenian prisoners held in a quarry when they decide to put on a play by Euripides. They start with Medea, which is obviously quite an exciting play. The book itself has all of the elements of a good Greek tragedy. And then there's the play within the play element. It's really quite clever.

If you have any interest in Greek culture and antiquity, I recommend this one.

This one was a DNF for me. Nothing against the writing, but I just couldn’t handle the violence against the captured. Even though it’s not a book for me, the narrative was good and I think the plot line makes a good story. Therefore giving it a good rating.

I picked this up primarily because of its setting: 412 BC, the middle of the Peloponnesian War, and two young and broke Syracusan 'lads' decide to stage a play, Euripides' Medea, using Athenian POWs as actors and the stone quarries that serve as their prison, as decor. Sicily is my favourite holiday destination, not in the least because of the incredible Greek remains and I kept imagining the famous Ear of Dionysus as the site.

The novel is a peculiar thing though and I find it hard to get my thoughts straight about it. On the one hand, I couldn't really go along with the idea of giving two young, unemployed Greeks strong, modern Irish accents. From what I learned about the ancient Greeks, they were very different from us. It remained strange until the end.

On the other hand, once I decided to go along with the main character Lampo and the story he tells about his time 'directing' the play, I was entertained and curious to see how it would end.

I do still wonder what it all meant, though. Probably I missed things in terms of message or parallels with today. Or else why would a young Irish writer choose this setting?

Anyway, apart from its original setting, this seems pretty straightforward historical fiction, certainly not as weird as the cover would suggest and unfortunately also not as brilliant as for instance Alvaro Enrigue's 'You Dreamed of Empires'.

3,5 rounded down

Glorious Exploits is a semi-unhinged historical fiction novel about two dudes living in Sicily during the Peloponnesian War who decide they're going to take advantage of the Athenian prisoners of war currently being kept in their town's quarry in order to put on a production of Euripides's Medea, a super cheerful play about child murder.

Two things drew me to this: that cover (I mean . . .) And the fact that it was set on Sicily, the home of my ancestors. For all I know, one of these two dudes is the reason I'm alive! Or someone like him, anyway. Also, it sounded ridiculous, and indeed it was! Did I mention that the author is Irish and the Sicilian characters talk in Irish vernacular?

I think I would have rated this higher had I done the audiobook, as I did have a bit of a hard time keeping my attention on the e-book, but this is a funny and surprisingly hard-hitting book that executes a very weird premise with skill.

[3.5 stars, rounded up]

This was a delightful and fascinating read. Well-written. I was impressed with the mix of humor and seriousness. This book is going to be well regarded for quite some time to come.

This was something very unique, and I am a bit remiss that I read it under the throes of illness because I don't think I fully understood what was going on. It is a historical fiction about the Peloponnesian war told in modern Irish dialect, and I wish I could study this in a classroom. I know there are so many layers to it that my mind cannot grasp. I think I will read it four more times before I can glean the complete meaning. Everyone read this!

I thought I would absolutely love this, but in the end I walked away feeling that it was…okay.

The concept behind this one is great, and in part the author really pulls it off. It’s a terrifically original idea and it successfully blends a smartly zany, high-concept idea with the brutal realities of life and war in Ancient Greece.

Where the book is wide of the mark a bit was in its humor, which misses more than it hits, and in the experimental attempt to infuse modern dialogue and verbiage into the setting, which didn’t work at all.

I tend to find anachronistic language to be self-indulgent on the part of the author more often than not, and it rarely fails to connect the story to a modern audience. And it’s tough to understand why anyone thinks it needs to. Why are any of us reading this if not for an interest in the time period in which it’s set? The subject matter doesn’t become more readable or relatable by adding words like “puke,” it just becomes less authentic.

In all it’s a good story, but the experimental language isn’t a success here.

Absolutely hilarious and extremely well written. I got recommended this book by my Euripidian writing professor and I’m so glad I got a chance to read an ARC! Thank you so much to the publisher for granting my request.

Serious props to whoever came up with the irresistible cover of Glorious Exploits, the debut novel from Irish-Libyan writer Ferdia Lennon, because it perfectly encapsulates this strange, appealing novel: Classic, yet full of anachronism.

The story takes place amid the Peloponnesian war, after Athens has failed to conquer Syracuse and Sicily and Athenian prisoners are kept in a quarry outside the city and left to starve. Two lowly potters, Lambo and Gelon, spot an opportunity to put on a play by the great Athenian playwright Euripides, with prisoners who, from Athens, must be true actors. They find a financier, they feed the prisoners, they put on a play.

Much will be (rightfully) say about how Lennon’s ancients speak as though they live in a working class Dublin neighborhood, as it’s the contrast between the old and the new that feels at once strange and yet entirely logical.

The dramatis personae of the story are the lowest of Syracusan society - working poor, slaves, prisoners – yet the pathos of their relationships elevates it to something more. There’s love, humor, absolute and horrifying loss and death. To say more is to give away what little plot there is. It’s art for art’s sake, but also art that bridges the chasms between bitter enemies.

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ 💫 4.5 stars rounded up

Thanks to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Reading this excellent novel I found myself nearly constantly bracing for impact. It's a fast moving, highly readable, beautifully written story that it took me ages to finish, because I couldn't handle the suspense at all. Glorious Exploits is an all-too successful combination of two world-class tragic genres (Greek tragedy and Irish comitragedy), and I was so stressed out waiting for each additional sandal to drop. I stopped several times in the middle of extremely suspenseful, climactic, and beautiful passages to like, put this book down and distract myself with other books. One time I put this down and read a different book that was <em>like a thousand pages long</em>. But nothing I did could reduce its power! It's so frightfully effective! Every time I picked it up I was <em>right back in it</em>, laughing and wondering and feeling a horribly renewed dread. I was impressed with how often I had been bracing myself for entirely the wrong thing—you might think anything that could go wrong would, but no! Some things go all too right! You might think the worst possible thing that could happen, <em>definitely</em> would, in every case, but in fact there is no way to know which level of awful, or in fact sublime, anything is going to be! Unpredictable, beautiful. One of the best books of the year.

Well written but subject-wise I fear only a particular type of reader with a deep interest in mythology will truly enjoy the intellect and humor the writing brings to this concept. Almost too clever for it's own good; I had trouble keeping interest as the quirkiness of the task quickly wore off and it became a chore rather than a pleasure to keep reading. Quite thrilled with the quality of writing that UEA alumni are producing; looking forward to an easier story for the mainstream to grasp.

What a delight! Funny, witty, unique, brutal; paying tribute to story and history and the history of how we tell stories! Would definitely recommend.

Graft Irish brogue onto ancient Syracusan and Athenian combatants, set the story in the aftermath of the Athenian defeat at Syracuse with its famously weird resolution to the problem the Syracusans had with what to do with the POWs, and make a buddy comedy out of it.

Of COURSE I asked for this book!

The titanic tragedies unfolding in today’s world are nothing new. The sheer number of us alive on Earth compared to three thousand...heck, three hundred...years ago means there are higher head counts in the disasters, but not greater or even equal proportions of the population. The scale of Athens’s humiliation, and her losses, in the failed imperial project that included her attempt at conquering Syracuse, rivals the British losses in World War I. An entire generation gone. The scale of democracy’s failings, and this imperial expansionist war was directly down to a democratic vote in Athens, has always been epic. After all, no government is one tiny bit better than its people force it to be.

So Gelon and Lampo get the historically accurate job of dealing with the horribly immiserated prisoners chucked down into the quarry to die. The solution has not changed. We get to see it all from the viewpoints of the two men who more or less came up with the solution, though. Gelon is sort of a sad soul, a man who is aware of and burdened by awareness of, the pointlessness of existence. Does any of this really matter, on can hear Gelon wondering inside himself. He finds no joy in the deaths the Athenians are doomed to, especially since it means he...and the world, of course...won’t get to hear the latest Euripides hit The Trojan Women. Because of course Gelon is all about the tragedian Euripides.

Lampo...get it?...finds light gleaming in all darknesses, Lampo thinks the Athenians must be good for something...and entertaining the Syracusans with the latest and greatest plays from cultural hub Athens is just the ticket. The men overhear the Athenians lightening ther last hours with dialogue from the current Athenian version of the West End/Broadway season, and hey presto a solution to the awful moral conundrum of just letting human beings die in misery comes. Lampo is the instigator of the full cast revival of the play, and convinces the angry Syracusans...even the guy with the club who’s taking revenge for his lost sons by killing every Athenian he possibly can...to set aside their hatred and listen to this brand-new play from the cultural capital of the world.

Setting aside the utter weirdness of this story’s factual reality...we know it really happened...this could have been a retelling of the events that went heavy on Message, bearing down hard on whichever piece caught Author Ferdia’s fancy. Instead he lets the reader select the message they want from the many on offer. Start with an Irish voice telling, in English, a tale of a violently failed colonial enterprise. I trust I do not need to go too far on that one to bring it into focus for you. Move to the unemployed potters, those craftworkers whose job it is to take dirt and turn it into useful and often beautiful things for people to benefit from, who see the utility and the necessity for using these aggressors for some kind of benefit to those they harmed. A tale, then, of restitution, never a bad thing to bring into the modern world. But then look again: the actors are there, able and ready to do their jobs, but unnoticed until summoned into being as actors by capitalist producers, who in case this parallel to the modern world slid past you, make no effort whatever to compensate the creator of the play they are producing. And the actors making the play are, it should not go unremarked on, living below the poverty level and thus are ready to do anything to stay alive.

And, should all that be more than you want to deal with in your present mood, this short novel can simply and pleasurably entertain you with its surreal blend of fact, fiction, and Aristophanes-level multilayered comedy.

Laugh along. Think deeply. Enjoy the music. You pick, you are the one who makes this read...all Author Ferdia did was find the story for you. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

What a hoot! I can't imagine how this was pitched first to an agent and then to a publisher because it's an unlikely one to say the least. Know that you'll be reading in modern Irish vernacular (it helps to know the slang) and that it's set in ancient days. There's a play, there's actors. there's war, there's affection, there's so much going on that you might feel overwhelmed a bit but at root this is just a darn good read. Thanks to edelweiss for the ARC. This should have broader appeal than the blurb (which might intimidate some readers) would suggest.

"Glorious Exploits" is about two friends, Gelon and Lampo who gather Athenian prisoners to put on a play in the local quarry. It is an old tale told in a contemporary voice, which was jarring at first but the sooner you accept it the sooner you'll love this story!

I would recommend this book to ages 18 and up to readers who enjoy fun books with a little more literary spice.

Thank you NetGalley for providing this story for us readers.