Glorious Exploits: A Novel

During the Peloponnesian War on Sicily, Syracusans imprison surviving Athenians in a rock quarry. Two unemployed potters, Lampo and Gelon, visit the quarry with an unusual offer: they will feed the prisoners if they can recite lines from Euripides. This leads the pair to an ambitious plan—staging a full production of Medea within the quarry. As opening night approaches, what began as a casual undertaking escalates into a series of significant events. The two friends discover that directing a theatrical production carries risks comparable to warfare, threatening their lives, physical safety, and friendship itself. The novel explores how art can unite people across conflict, examining brotherhood amid enmity and human resilience across time. It has won the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction, the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize, and the Authors' Club Best First Novel Award. It was shortlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction, the Irish Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Nero Book Awards Debut Fiction Prize, and the British Book Award for Debut Fiction Book of the Year, and longlisted for the Carnegie Medal of Excellence. It was named a Best Book of 2024 by Slate, the Guardian, and the New York Public Library.