Back to Delphi

A mother’s brief reunion with her imprisoned son is saturated in both love and menace in this complex and compelling novel.

Linus has been granted a five-day furlough from prison, where he is serving a life sentence for murder. His mother has decided to take him to Delphi. A few days spent in that magical place, she thinks, might distract him from his awful fate. She also hopes this brief time together might be a chance for them to repair what has become a damaged relationship. To that end, she has a difficult revelation to share with her son: Ten years earlier, it was she who led the police to him; she is responsible for his arrest and imprisonment.

Over the course of five days, as mother and son wander the magnificent ruins of Delphi, matters concerning Linus’s childhood that have been buried for decades resurface. This is a return to the origins of Greek tragedy, a story about guilt and innocence, about the monsters that lurk even in everyday life, and about the complex and fascinating relationship between mothers and their sons.

“One can not stop reading until the end.” —L’Espresso