Odysseus

Name: Odysseus
Rating: 4.3 (490 reviews)

by Valerio Massimo Manfredi

Amazon

4.2(490)

Valerio Massimo Manfredi retells the youth of Odysseus before the events of the Iliad and Odyssey. Growing up on Ithaca, the future king listens to the stories of his formidable grandfather Autolycus and begins to understand the mixture of cunning, curiosity and physical courage that will define him. A journey to Mycenae brings him into the world of the great royal houses and the legends surrounding Heracles, while a disturbing alternative account of an old crime teaches him that heroic reputations can conceal darker truths.

The novel follows Odysseus as a young man moving through the palaces and rivalries of Bronze Age Greece, gradually forming relationships that will later draw him towards Troy. Rather than beginning with the famous wanderer already fully formed, it presents the experiences, loyalties and ambitions from which the legendary figure emerges.