'One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years' Irish Times An exhilarating and fiercely original story of brotherhood, war and art, set in ancient Sicily Ancient Sicily. Enter GELON- visionary, dreamer, theatre lover. Enter LAMPO- lovesick, jobless, in need of a distraction. Imprisoned in the quarries of Syracuse, thousands of defeated Athenians hang on by the thinnest of threads. They're fading in the baking heat, but not everything is lost- they can still recite lines from Greek tragedy when tempted by Lampo and Gelon with goatskins of wine and scraps of food. And so an idea is born. Because, after all, you can hate the invaders but still love their poetry. It's audacious. It might even be dangerous. But like all the best things in life - love, friendship, art itself - it will reveal the very worst, and the very best, of what humans are capable of. What could possibly go wrong?

Details

ISBN13: 9780241998007
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 288
Edition:
Publication Date: 23 Apr 2025
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 19.8(H)x12.9(L)x1.7(W)204
Weight (gm): 204

Author Biography

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

Reviews

One of the most original and brilliant Irish debuts in years * Irish Times *
'The debut novelist to watch ... Remarkable ... This debut is entertaining, vivid, original – and has a huge amount of fun turning the genre on its head ... The premise is irresistible ... Terrific ... A novel to be gulped down' * The i *
Bold and totally unexpected, I loved this book. A brilliant novel about friendship, the healing power of art, and why we must fight for our dreams. I was hooked from the first page * Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain *
Immensely likeable ... Raucously funny ... The writing is beautifully controlled * The Observer *
Brilliant ... I love contemporary Irish fiction and Greek tragedy, so how wonderful to find a novel where they are brilliantly paired. It is as hilarious, moving, and profound as promised * Rebecca F. Kuang, author of Yellowface *
As thrilling for me as the first time I picked up a Kevin Barry novel. Glorious Exploits is exuberant, funny, lyrical and profoundly moving. It is, quite simply, a rare beauty * Sarah Winman, author of Still Life *
Glorious Exploits stinks of misery, despair, love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph. It’s a novel thick with the stuff of the Classics, in other words. A delicious treat of a read. I loved it * Jon McGregor *
In At Swims-Two-Birds, Flann O'Brien gave us cowboys riding through Dublin. Now, Ferdia Lennon gives us modern-day Dubliners living among the ancient Greeks. This is a very special, very clever, very entertaining novel * Roddy Doyle *
One of the best debut novels of the year – it even received an award saying so – this is a ridiculously fun book…It's a poignant story about war, art, and friendship, while also being very funny * iPaper – The 30 best books for Christmas 2024 *
Funny, thoughtful, moving, brilliant * Nick Laird, Irish Sunday Independent *