Sparrow

Hardback original

Hardback (04 May 2023)

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Publisher's Synopsis

'Masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship' - The Observer
'Utterly engrossing, vivid and honest' - Emma Donoghue

Meet Jacob - aka Sparrow - a boy slave in a brothel in the Spanish city of New Carthage in the last years of pagan Rome.


Raised in a brothel at the edge of a dying empire, a boy of no known origin creates his own identity. He is Sparrow, who sings without reason and can fly from trouble. His world is a kitchen, a herb-scented garden, a loud and dangerous tavern, and the mysterious upstairs where the 'wolves' - prostitutes and slaves from every corner of the empire - conduct their business.

He spends his days listening to stories told by his beloved 'mother' Euterpe, running errands for her lover the cook, and dodging the blows of their brutal overseer and the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene. A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the women who have been his whole world.

Through meticulous research and bold imagination, James Hynes brings the entirety of the Roman city of Carthago Nova - its markets, temples, taverns of the lowly and mansions of the rich - to vivid, brutal life. Walking through lost places, hearing forgotten voices, this story belongs to the slave class that made an infamous empire function.

This is a powerfully affecting and memorable character.
This is Sparrow.

About the Publisher

Picador

Picador

Picador publishes outstanding international writing, fiction and non-fiction, in both hardback and paperback, and has numerous prize winners on its list. Picador has established a reputation for literary fiction with a broad commercial appeal, groundbreaking non-fiction, (particularly, reportage, literary biography and memoir) and a formidable poetry list, which has consistently won many of the major prizes.

Book information

ISBN: 9781529092394
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Imprint: Picador
Pub date:
Edition: Hardback original
DEWEY: 813.6
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 449
Weight: 696g
Height: 164mm
Width: 242mm
Spine width: 44mm