Son of Nobody
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Son of Nobody
Narrated by:
Robin Wilcock, Aaron Willis
Buy Now for £17.46
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Narrated by:
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Robin Wilcock
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Aaron Willis
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By:
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Yann Martel
About this listen
From the author of the international bestseller Life of Pi, a brilliant retelling of the Trojan War from two commoners: an ancient soldier and modern scholar.
“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 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 two-thousand-year gap between the two, a thread hasn’t frayed: the universal song of homesickness and regret, of ambition, love, and grief.
In this masterpiece of myth, history, and domesticity, Son of Nobody explores how stories become facts, the price we pay to share them, and how we live—then, now, and always.
Critic reviews
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2026 by Esquire • Marie Claire • Art+ • The Times • The Guardian • The Observer • The Financial Times • BBC • The Sydney Morning Herald • A Globe and Mail Spring 2026 Read • Featured in The American Booksellers Association's Spring 2026 Preview • Oprah Daily
“Martel delivers another staggering and insightful novel of ideas.” —Esquire (The 22 Most Anticipated Books of 2026)
“An ambitious, often captivating novel. . . . Martel’s imagination is amply matched by his craft. . . . Son of Nobody invites readers to take part in its playfulness, ensnares them with a superb imitation epic, and then slowly shatters their hearts.” ―Financial Times
“A brilliant novel of ideas. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and the vanity of human wishes, all illustrated by a poem that would do Homer proud. A stunningly imagined revisitation of an ancient past that is every bit as awful as the present.” —Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
“[An] inventive novel about a classics scholar who makes a thrilling discovery. . . . Martel’s brilliant examination of how history is made and of who pays the price for all-consuming obsessions is original, thought-provoking, and utterly absorbing.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A beautiful story about what we can learn from the past when it comes to homesickness, grief, love and ambition.” —ELLE
“Inspired. . . . An appealing labor of love.” ―Publishers Weekly
“An absolutely stunning read. We follow a scholar as he pieces together a lost epic of the Trojan War: not of the mighty kings focused on during The Illiad, but of a common foot soldier’s suffering during the ten long years of war.” —Sierra Hollabaugh, The American Booksellers Association
“In Son of Nobody, Yann Martel sketches an expansive double narrative of ancient Greek text and the lonely academic whose translation attempts keep circling back to his own life and loves.” —The Boston Globe
“A singular tour de force. . . . Brain-busting and beautiful. . . . Son of Nobody could be Martel’s magnum opus.” —New Zealand Listener
“Life of Pi author Yann Martel again flexes his extraordinary imagination in this latest novel. . . . Son of Nobody joins other brilliant novels involving deranged scholars, including Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire.” —Heller McAlpin, The Christian Science Monitor, ‘15 March Books to Read and Relish’
“Martel delivers another staggering and insightful novel of ideas.” —Esquire (The 22 Most Anticipated Books of 2026)
“An ambitious, often captivating novel. . . . Martel’s imagination is amply matched by his craft. . . . Son of Nobody invites readers to take part in its playfulness, ensnares them with a superb imitation epic, and then slowly shatters their hearts.” ―Financial Times
“A brilliant novel of ideas. . . . A powerful meditation on life, death, and the vanity of human wishes, all illustrated by a poem that would do Homer proud. A stunningly imagined revisitation of an ancient past that is every bit as awful as the present.” —Kirkus Reviews, (starred review)
“[An] inventive novel about a classics scholar who makes a thrilling discovery. . . . Martel’s brilliant examination of how history is made and of who pays the price for all-consuming obsessions is original, thought-provoking, and utterly absorbing.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A beautiful story about what we can learn from the past when it comes to homesickness, grief, love and ambition.” —ELLE
“Inspired. . . . An appealing labor of love.” ―Publishers Weekly
“An absolutely stunning read. We follow a scholar as he pieces together a lost epic of the Trojan War: not of the mighty kings focused on during The Illiad, but of a common foot soldier’s suffering during the ten long years of war.” —Sierra Hollabaugh, The American Booksellers Association
“In Son of Nobody, Yann Martel sketches an expansive double narrative of ancient Greek text and the lonely academic whose translation attempts keep circling back to his own life and loves.” —The Boston Globe
“A singular tour de force. . . . Brain-busting and beautiful. . . . Son of Nobody could be Martel’s magnum opus.” —New Zealand Listener
“Life of Pi author Yann Martel again flexes his extraordinary imagination in this latest novel. . . . Son of Nobody joins other brilliant novels involving deranged scholars, including Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire.” —Heller McAlpin, The Christian Science Monitor, ‘15 March Books to Read and Relish’
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