Sparrow cover art

Sparrow

The Sunday Times Bestseller set in the dying days of the Roman Empire

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Sparrow

By: James Hynes
Narrated by: Theo Solomon
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About this listen

As an empire burns, he will rise from the ashes.

Sparrow, the Sunday Times bestselling historical epic by James Hynes, is the incredibly moving story of one boy’s journey to freedom in the harsh world of the Roman Empire.

Raised in a brothel at the edge of a dying empire, a boy of no known origin creates his own identity. He is Sparrow.

Sparrow’s world consists of a kitchen and herb-scented garden, a loud and dangerous tavern, and the mysterious upstairs where the wolves, the women who have shaped his world, conduct their business. Where freedom is only for a privileged few, Sparrow’s life is hard-edged and violent.

But change is coming.

The world outside his garden is about to be reshaped, and as an empire crumbles, murder and mayhem will come to Sparrow’s door. As the only family he’s ever known scatters, will Sparrow fall – or fly?

‘Truly unforgettable' – Daily Mail
‘Masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship' – The Observer

 Ancient Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Wolf

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Critic reviews

A stunning work of historical imagination . . . Masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship
Utterly engrossing, vivid, and honest, this coming of age story reaches across millennia to grab us by the throat.' (Emma Donoghue, author of Room)
An unnerving, exhilarating, unflinching portrayal of sex, slavery and sisterhood . . . This is a novel of ancient times for our times. And it is splendid, a work of scorching distinction. (Jim Crace, author of Harvest)
Sparrow is a brilliantly written page-turner, a complex, vital, sometimes brutal story told with heartrending beauty. (Kate Christensen, author of The Great Man)
Hynes, using his pen like a cinematic overview, makes us see everything, the streets, the markets, the homes . . . everything is historically documented.
Sparrow feels like an entirely authentic portrait . . . James Hynes renders this hidden world so powerfully and vividly.
A bleak and brutal story, vividly told by Hynes, who has created a truly unforgettable character in the resilient Sparrow
All stars
Most relevant
What a wonderful book! This is one where you pick it up and you live this boys’ brutal world and revel in his small triumphs. I listened to the whole thing in 4 days.
I note one reader has found this book too violent. I have a son and can safely say I found a few of the scenes to be very confronting but I have to defend the author and say the violence and abuse was not gratuitous and what is there was actually necessary for us to understand the desperate reality of a slave in this situation.
All in all, you are just rooting for this wee boy the whole way through the story which for me is a true sign of an author’s success in drawing the reader right in to the story to walk the cobbles with the protagonist.
It is an utterly immersive story of human resilience with a good scattering of humour too. Buy it, you won’t regret it!

Gripping, immersive experience.

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Overall an enjoyable book, kept me reasonably interested. Were some slower sections. Great descriptive detail, really brought the time and place to life - not to mention the main character’s experience.

Enjoyable

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I enjoyed the story overall, mainly for the glimpse in to life in ancient times. I found that it was somewhat drawn out and tiresome in parts but overall a good story. Difficult to listen about the abuse of a child and the normalisation of such way back when. My main gripe, being totally honest, was the voice the narrator used as the young boy. I appreciate the narrator is an adult but the whiny tone made it hard to endure at times.

Enjoyable but drawn out

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For a nearly eighteen hour long book, this was peculiarly riveting. Even more so when you realise there are hours during which nothing much happens. And yet, those hours draw you in with their descriptions of life at the tavern / brothel which forms the central locale of the novel. They make you care about the various characters, especially the young boy who narrates from old age what it's like to be a nameless slave living on the Spanish fringes of a slowly dying Roman empire.

The trundling, closely-observed nature of the general narrative makes any points of conflict stand out all the sharper. And be warned, some incidents may be distressing, especially the one which turns the boy into a 'wolf'. And under all of this is a pervading sense of uncertainty, of instability, of the idea that a slave is disposable, a possession that might be sold, or damaged, or thrown away on a whim.

Having spent all that time building layer upon layer of realism, I thought the ending was a cop-out. Maybe I missed something, but I don't think so. That apart, this was a surprisingly satisfying read. Theo Solomon as narrator helped. A lot. He caught a boy's tone perfectly and managed to differentiate all the other characters (there's a lot) with conviction.

Strangely compelling

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This is a brilliant book. The ancient city of Carthago Nova is vividly brought back to life and all the characters, good and bad, are entirely believable. The narration is spot on.

Wonderful

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