The Lost Books of the Odyssey

“Mason has found a supple, lyrical voice in these pages that captures the spirit of the original Odyssey and at the same time feels freshly contemporary.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

A New York Times Bestseller

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year

Zachary Mason's brilliant and beguiling debut novel, The Lost Books of the Odyssey, reimagines Homer's classic story of the hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. With brilliant 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 Odyssey is punctuated with great wit, beauty, and playfulness; it is a daring literary page-turner that marks the emergence of an extraordinary new talent.

“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.” —John Swansburg, Slate.com

“Mason has a big heart beneath all his narrative trickery, and he uses it to bring a contemporary sensitivity to the myths.” —Jeremy McCarter, Newsweek

“Jubilant in execution. Perverse and irreverent.” —Katherine A. Powers, The Boston Globe

“Mason’s prose is finely wrought . . . His imagination soars and his language delights.” —Adam Mansbach, The New York Times Book Review

“Clever, compelling, and often poignant . . . Mason’s puckishly archaic diction, a wiseacre’s revision of Richmond Lattimore with swing and jazz, is such a pleasure.” —Jesse Berrett, San Francisco Chronicle