Ransom:
Written by: David Malouf
Narrated by: Simon
Vance
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Time: 4 Hours 38 Minutes
David Malouf
shines new light on Homer’s Iliad, adding twists and reflections, as well as flashes of earthy humour, to surprise and enchant. In this exquisite gem of a
novel, Achilles is 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.