Son of Nobody

 by Yann Martel

This is by the author of the book Life of Pi.

It is a brilliant book. Both Harv and I enjoyed it.

The story is about a Canadian academic who leaves his wife and daughter in Canada to go and study an ancient text at Oxford University.  The man's marriage is on the rocks.

He is studying some ancient papyrus scraps that seem to tell a "poor man's" version of the siege of Troy.  Martel has written it in the same format as the Odyssey.  It is amazingly creative, brutal and eloquent.  It tells of Son of Nobody's experience on the battlefield and how only the rich benefit from war.

Alongside the main characters research we get some of his "analysis" of the text and supplemental comments on history and literature including comparison of the Odyssey tale and the stories about Jesus.  Both are myth and we don't really know what is true.

We also get the story of his fractious relationship with is wife.  His wife tries to contact him about their daughter being ill but I think he ignores the first few calls and when she does reach him she is at the hospital and is able to observe remotely the doctors failed attempt to save his daughter.

His wife wants him to come back for the funeral. He stalls her until his work is finished.  In the end his supervisor doesn't like the work he did and if I remember correctly he is out of work.

While the Troy part is very interesting I am not sure about the present day story.  I suppose the main character is supposed to be a modern day Odysseus who delayed coming home but his daughter was not alive when he got home, unlike Odysseus's son and his wife was not waiting for him....

It was an amazing feat of writing.

ab