THE HIDDEN

Ancient and modern Greece meet in this ambitious, slow-paced story of an archaeological dig whose members have a hidden agenda.

Hill (The Love of Stones, 2001, etc.) uses as his viewpoint character a 25-year-old archaeologist. Ben Mercer, a postgraduate teacher/student, has spent the last seven years at Oxford. While there, the Englishman married foreign-born Emine; they had one child, Vanessa, before Emine divorced him. Ben still loves his ex-wife and daughter. Feeling like an abject failure he runs off to Greece with no clear goal and finds work at a meat grill in an Athens suburb. He hears of a dig outside Sparta and is hired to join a ragtag bunch of “shovelmonkeys” working for an American director. A core group of five appears to have a secret they refuse to share with their director or Ben. In this they are no different from the original Spartans, who thrived on secrecy while terrorizing their helots. We learn this from cogent academic notes interpolated through a narrative that constantly draws parallels. “We’re the real Spartans now,” says one shovelmonkey. Ben, whose greatest need is for camaraderie, feels increasingly frustrated, though he finds relief (rather too easily) in the arms of Japanese Natsuko. Readers will also be frustrated. The talented Hill is fizzing with ideas, but they’re only half-executed. Why doesn’t the collapse of Ben’s marriage get fuller treatment? Why is Max, the ringleader of a complicated scheme, kept in the background? The account of group dynamics meanders on until Ben is let into the club and learns the secret. It’s shocking but quite far-fetched and comes way too late. Just as disappointing, Ben gains no insight into the source of his recurrent anger; in the end, he’s still running from himself.

Hill’s grasp of history is more impressive than his hold on his characters.