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Ransom

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Malouf's fable engraves the epic themes of the Trojan war onto a perfect miniature.

David Malouf shines new light on Homer’s Iliad, adding twists and reflections as well as flashes of earthy humour to surprise and enchant.

In this exquisite gem of a novel, Achilles is maddened by grief at the death of his friend Patroclus. From the walls of Troy, King Priam watches the body of his son, Hector, being dragged behind Achilles’ chariot. There must be a way, he thinks, of reclaiming the body - of pitting compromise against heroics, new ways against the old, and of forcing the hand of fate. Dressed simply and in a cart pulled by a mule, an old man sets off for the Greek camp....

Lyrical, immediate and heartbreaking, Malouf’s fable engraves the epic themes of the Trojan war onto a perfect miniature - themes of war and heroics, hubris and humanity, chance and fate, the bonds between soldiers, fathers and sons, all newly burnished and brilliantly recast for our times.

©2009 David Malouf (P)2014 Audible Inc. Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Ancient Greece Ancient History Greek Mythology
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I loved this book. David Malouf's writing is beautiful, very vivid, very moving in places and often poetic. He takes you right into the scene, and right inside the hearts and minds of the people he is writing about. I first read this as a paperback but felt I wanted to read it again to savour it. It has so many layers. The performance by Simon Vance is absolutely superb and I can't praise him highly enough. Everything about his reading is perfect and he added hugely to my enjoyment and appreciation.

A marvellous reading

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