One of the best books I have read. 44 short (some very short) stories on the theme of Odysseus and his return from Troy. Poetic, mysterious, playful, jumping around in time, each one, for lovers of Homer, a pre-sleep daily meditation. To write any more would spoil things: read the stories.

Or read other reviews, like John Swansburg’s, which begins:

There are less hubristic ways to start a career as a novelist than by retelling the story of The Odyssey. For one thing, the original was pretty good. For another, the story has been retold before—by the likes of Alfred Lord Tennyson, James Joyce, and Fritz Lang, to name a few. Yet in The Lost Books of the Odyssey, Zachary Mason has achieved something remarkable. He’s written a first novel that is not just vibrantly original but also an insightful commentary on Homer’s epic and its lasting hold on our imagination.