Absolutely glorious. The pace cracks along, helped by Ferida's distinctive and wonderf voice. It's full of love for art and poetry and the power of Euripides' so very human plays. It's grim and gory in places, it soars in others, and has a thread of inevitable tragedy through it - no matter the good Lampo tries to do - that Euripides would have appreciated and the gods wouldn't found entertaining. It is, all in all, a very human book.

This book is delightful and original. I read an advanced copy though NetGalley and it was one of my top reads of 2023. It's written beautifully, with a narration in a contemporary Irish vernacular that brings an element of humor and makes the story feel modern and relatable. It's dark, deeply funny, with glimpses of hope scattered throughout. It's also very readable, I burned through it in two days because the story really immersed me and I wanted to see what happened next. I thought it was well paced and had a satisfying ending. The novel features two friends, Lampo and Gelon who are unemployed potters during the Peloponnesian war. Syracuse defeated invading Athenians and imprisoned them in a quarry. The two friends like to go to the quarry and mess with them to pass the time. Gelon often has them recite from his favorite playwrite, Euripedes and gets the idea to stage a play with the Athenian prisoners as actors, the closest he'll ever get to seeing his hero's work staged in Athens. We see the process as they bring it to life, securing an eccentric patron, getting to know the 'actors', collecting a group of children to assist, securing different elements they need, and promoting the play. Along the way we really get to know the characters and root for them even when they don't necessarily deserve it. I did not know anything about the Peloponnesian war or Euripides going into this, but I appreciated the glimpse into this place and time which felt well researched but accessible. This accessability is also helped by the MCs not being war heroes or gods like a lot of ancient/historic greek retellings. I've been recommending it to everyone I can and I really hope it gets the attention it deserves, I think a lot of people would enjoy it.

I just loved this book. Original, clever, funny, beautifully written with an emotional punch. A story about friendship, the importance of forgiveness and how Art can triumph even in the bleakest of situations! A stunning debut - thank you to the publishers for the advance copy.

5th century BC Syracuse recently fought off an attack by the Athenians and hundreds of Athenian prisoners are kept in a disused quarry. where they are slowly starving to death. Two unemployed potters, friends and drinking companions amuse themselves occasionally by taking scraps of food to the quarry to throw to the men. They take it into their heads, discovering that some of the poisoners are familiar with Euripides, to put on a production of Medea, acted by them. How to feed the actors enough so they don't die? How to fund masks and costumes? Its ancient and modern, captivating and funny, beautifully written - Brilliant!

The bench mark by which I will compare all the rest of this year’s books . Utterly original , very funny and profoundly moving . Absolutely first class writing .