Ransom - Hardcover

Malouf, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0701184159 ISBN 13: 9780701184155

Publisher: Chatto & Windus, 2009

Synopsis

What happens when a young prince falls in battle and his body is spirited away to be desecrated and dishonoured?His death is the battle price of another young man’s death, but what price dishonour and a father’s grief? In this exquisite gem of a novel, David Malouf shines new light on Homer’s Iliad, adding twists and reflections, as well as flashes of earthy humour, to surprise and enchant. His version opens with Achilles, 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.

About this title

Review:

'In austere, elegant prose David Malouf has created in Ransom an imaginative terrain that is both new and old'

Book Description:

A brilliant Homeric fable in miniature for our times - a lyrical and surprising reworking of the story of the Trojan war by an acclaimed international writer.

About this edition

• Publisher: Chatto & Windus
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0701184159
• ISBN 13: 9780701184155
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 240