Glorious Exploits (Ferdia Lennon)

A delicate balance of funny and heart wrenching, in that distinctly Irish way. Lennon’s debut novel unfolds in Syracuse during the Peloponnesian War, centering around two unemployed potters who cope with their joblessness by putting on a production of Medea using a bunch of Athenian prisoners. He uses a modern Irish vernacular throughout, which I thought made the story incredibly readable. Walks the line between thoughtful literary fiction and an easy summer read.