Longlisted for the 2014 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction A thrilling & complex book enlarges our view of Homer There's something that hits the mark on every page' Claire Tomalin Books of the Year New Statesman Where does Homer come from? & why does Homer matter? His epic poems of war & suffering can still speak to us of the role of destiny in life of cruelty of humanity & its frailty but why they do is a mystery How can we be so intimate with something so distant? The Mighty Dead' is a magical journey of discovery across wide stretches of the past sewn together by some of the oldest stories we have
- the great ancient poems of Homer & their metaphors of life & trouble In this provocative & enthralling book Adam Nicolson explains why Homer still matters & how these vital epic verses
- with their focus on the eternal questions about the individual versus the community honour & service love & war
- tell us how we became who we are