Son of Nobody
As seen:
By Yann Martel
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1 review
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The past is never done with: always the song continues
Harlow Donne has devoted his life to the Classical world. When a chance comes up to study an obscure collection of papyrus fragments at Oxford University, he seizes it. Though it means leaving his daughter and fracturing marriage back home in Canada, this is the kind of career break he desperately needs. In the depths of the Bodleian Library, Harlow discovers a lost account of the Trojan War, a glimpse into the founding of Western civilization itself. He names the epic poem The Psoad, after its protagonist, a Greek commoner identified as Psoas of Midea but known to all as ‘son of nobody’. As sole translator and interpreter of the Psoad, Harlow dedicates the poem and its modern footnotes to his daughter, Helen. Under his gaze, the text unlocks echoes of Ancient Greece into the present day, and a personal message to his beloved child appears. Despite the three-thousand-year gap between the two, a thread hasn’t frayed: the universal song of homesickness and regret, of ambition and grief. In this masterpiece of myth and history, Son of Nobody explores how stories become facts, the price we pay to share them and how we live – then, now and always. TweetReviews
I was intrigued by the title of Yann Martel,s latest novel. Son of Nobody captured my attention from the outset. The eye catching cover design instantly evokes Ancient Greece. However on closer inspection the inclusion of a small silhouette in modern dress reading a book cleverly gives the first clue to the dual narrative awaiting beyond the beautiful cobalt blue fly leaves.
After a brief, but engaging, introduction entitled Author's Note a very innovative structure is deployed. I liked the way a bold, black, horizontal line separated each page in two. Above the line verses of the epic Psoad poem emerged as they were translated by Harlow. In the space below this a contemporary, multi layered story unfolded focussing on the relationship between the scholar in Oxford and the family he left at home in America. As early as p8 the compelling line, 'I failed you as a father Helen and I failed your mother as a husband' had foreshadowed the subsequent narrative arc. I really enjoyed this original format. However it did become frustrating at times when it resulted in multiple blank pages. This slowed down the modern day storyline at crucial points. The author used a footnotes approach to link the two strands of the novel and this was largely successful. I found the ending particularly poignant as the Son of Nobody and the Academic appeared to align as mirror images of each other.
This was a meticulously researched book and I would not hesitate to recommend it to other readers. I would like to thank the Reading Agency and the publisher Canongate for providing review copies to Whitley Bay Book Club.
