Glorious Exploits: A bold and funny Sunday Times bestselling debut novel set in Ancient Sicily

Lennon, Ferdia

ISBN 10: 024199800X / ISBN 13: 9780241998007

Published by Penguin, 2025

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Glorious Exploits: A bold and funny Sunday Times bestselling debut novel set in Ancient Sicily
• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 024199800X
• ISBN 13: 9780241998007
• Binding: Soft cover
• Condition: as new

About this title

Synopsis

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE WATERSTONES DEBUT FICTION PRIZE 2024
WINNER OF THE BOLLINGER EVERYMAN WODEHOUSE PRIZE FOR COMIC FICTION 2024
WINNER OF THE AUTHORS' CLUB BEST FIRST NOVEL AWARD
WINNER OF THE PREMIO GREGOR VON REZZORI
SHORTLISTED FOR THE NERO AWARD FOR DEBUT FICTION 2024
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JOHN MCGAHERN PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS BOOK OF THE YEAR 2025 (DEBUT FICTION)
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK AT BEDTIME
A BBC2 BETWEEN THE COVERS PICK
PICKED AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE GUARDIAN, THE INDEPENDENT, THE IRISH TIMES, THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE TLS

‘One of the most original and brilliant debuts in years’ Irish Times

‘Bold and totally unexpected ... I was hooked from the first page’ Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain

‘Brilliant ... Hilarious, moving, and profound’ R. F. Kuang, author of Yellowface

***

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?

***

‘Fierce, funny, fast-paced … Brings the ancient world roaring to life’ Joanna Quinn, author of The Whalebone Theatre

‘Love, war, poetry, reckless ambition, terrible failure, and glorious triumph … A delicious treat of a read. I loved it’ Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand

Sunday Times bestseller, August 2024

About the Author

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.