Son of Nothing by Yann Martel

I think this book, which is composed in an unusual manner, benefits greatly from the recent release of Christopher Nolan's movie retelling of the Odyssey. This is set before that, during the Trojan War, but the revisiting of Homer's work overall and the linked epic poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey have been revived for a greater audience. a Canadian classicist, Harlow Donne, has been offered a year’s fellowship at Oxford University. His wife, Gail, has a full-time managerial job, and they have a seven-year-old daughter, Helen. Who will pour out her breakfast cereal and pick her up from school while Harlow is away? He and Gail quarrel. He leaves for England, and Gail tells him to not come back (unlike with Penelope, who waits Once Harlow gets to Oxford, the narrative shifts its form and becomes odder and more interesting. His prescribed task is to help sift through and translate a hoard of ancient papyri from Oxyrhynchus, in upper Egypt. It’s that he comes to believe are a long-lost epic poem. It relates the story of the Trojan war, but not, as Homer tells it, from the viewpoint of princely warriors and gods. The protagonist is a common soldier, a “son of nobody” named Psoas. This is a novel that contains the actual poem. The Psoad makes up half of the book in terms of word count--the poem’s fragments are printed across the top half of the pages, while below the line are footnotes, in which Harlow sets out to comment on the text, but is soon finding in it prompts for reminiscences about his relationship with Gail, and reflections about his home life addressed to his daughter. The two narrative strands – the ancient epic and the modern domestic drama – tug at and distort each other, until finally they merge in a doubly mournful conclusion.