SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2017
SHORTLISTED FOR THE LONDON HELLENIC PRIZE 2017
WINNER OF THE PRIX MĂDITERRANĂE 2018
From the award-winning, best-selling writer: a deeply moving tale of a father and sonâs transformative journey in reading â and reliving â Homerâs epic masterpiece.
When eighty-one-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enrol in the undergraduate seminar on the Odyssey that his son Daniel teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, a retired research scientist who sees the world through a mathematicianâs unforgiving eyes, this return to the classroom is his âone last chanceâ to learn the great literature heâd neglected in his youth â and, even more, a final opportunity to understand his son.
But through the sometimes uncomfortable months that follow, as the two men explore Homerâs great work together â first in the classroom, where Jay persistently challenges his sonâs interpretations, and then during a surprise-filled Mediterranean journey retracing Odysseusâ legendary voyages â it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too. For Jayâs responses to both the text and the travels gradually uncover long-buried secrets that allow the Daniel to understand his difficult father at last. As this intricately woven memoir builds to its wrenching climax, Mendelsohnâs narrative comes to echo the Odyssey itself, with its timeless themes of deception and recognition, marriage and children, the pleasures of travel and the meaning of home.
Rich with literary and emotional insight, An Odyssey is a renowned writerâs most revelatory entwining yet of personal narrative and literary exploration.
