An Iliad

Translated by Ann Goldstein

Alessandro Baricco re-creates the siege of Troy through the voices of 21 Homeric characters. Sacrificing none of Homer’s panoramic scope, Baricco forgoes Homer’s detachment and admits us to realms of subjective experience his predecessor never explored. From the return of Chryseis to the burial of Hector, we see through human eyes and feel with human hearts the unforgettable events first recounted more than 3,000 years ago—events arranged not by the whims of the gods in this instance but by the dictates of human nature.

With Andromache, Patroclus, Priam and the rest, we are privy to the ghastly confusion of battle, the clamour of the princely councils and the intimacies of the bedchamber until finally only a blind poet is left to recount secondhand the awful fall of Ilium.

Imbuing the stuff of legend with a startingly new relevance and humanity, Baricco gives us The Iliad as we have never known it. His transformative achievement is certain to fascinate all readers of Homer’s and bring a whole new audience to this indispensable classic.