The Lost Books of the Odyssey: A Novel [Paperback]

ANew York TimesBestseller
ANew York Times Book ReviewEditors' Choice

Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With hypnotic prose, terrific imagination, and dazzling literary skill, Mason creates alternative episodes, fragments, and revisions of Homer's original that, taken together, open up this classic Greek myth to endless reverberating interpretations.The Lost Books of the Odysseyis punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.

1. The novel's preface, delivered in the voice of a classics scholar, states that the forty-four variations omit stock epic formulae in favor of honing a single trope or image down to an extreme of clarity. How would you define that single trope? Which of the novel's recurring images do you consider to be the most haunting?

2. The opening segment captures the power of the gods to inflict harm and to obscure reality. How do the characters respond to a world in which everyday life might be a mere illusion? Should we feel confident in reality?

3. How would you characterize the bond between Athena and Odysseus? What power do they wield over each other? What is unique about Zachary Mason's approach to the relationships between gods and mortals?

4. Discuss the many versions of Telemachus presented inThe Lost Books of the Odyssey. What facets of father-son relationships are presented?

5. What accounts for the endurance of tales related to the Trojan War? Why might the author have included a passage devoted to Alexander, and a medieval chapter ( Record of a Game )? How does Mason's approach compare to recent films inspired by Homer's epics?

6. Consider the Odyssean aspects of reading this novel. How did you experience the multiple guides who led your journeylÓ.