SON OF NOBODY

The Canadian author of Life of Pi (2001), etc., returns with a brilliant novel of ideas.

Martel’s protagonist, Canadian classicist Harlow Donne, has stumbled across a shattered piece of pottery that opens the door to a hitherto unknown epic poem, The Psoad, recounting the Trojan War from the point of view of an ordinary soldier named Psoas (pronounce it “so as”). One of the commoners who fought the war for their royal masters, Psoas says—in the epic poem that forms the backbone of Martel’s story—“We will make good of our time here. / To take from the rich Trojans, what a dream.” Alas, wealth is fleeting: “Each man, of his pile of loot, cried in a rage, / ‘Mine! Mine! Mine!’ For nothing. It all vanished.” So, too, is life fleeting: In a memorable turn, Psoas, having performed Achilles-like acts of heroism in combat but taken the usual furious atrocities a step too far, descends into hell, there to converse with none other than Hades himself, who has a striking thought: “All mortals come to me the same, equal. / If they die equal, why should they not live equal?” Parallel to this imagined Greek text is a running footnoted commentary, part faux academic and part plain-spoken: Donne observes, in just the right formulation, that “in Greek epic, no one listens and no one gets along. Then there’s hell to pay.” True that. The commentary runs deeper, though, for in it Donne also relates the good fortune that once brought him love and a family and the shocking tragedy that shatters them—though Donne, who is seemingly indifferent to anything outside his scholarship, can hardly be bothered to face up to his responsibilities. The story is a powerful meditation on life, death, and the vanity of human wishes, all illustrated by a poem that would do Homer proud.

A stunningly imagined revisitation of an ancient past that is every bit as awful as the present.