Big thanks to Adèle Geras for sending us a proof of her latest book for young adults, Ithaka, which carried me effortlessly through a three-hour visa queue. In fact, with about 15 pages to go when I was finally called to the desk to pick up my paperwork, I sat right back down again in the waiting area to finish the thing off.
A follow-up, though not a sequel, to her Whitbread and Carnegie-shortlisted Troy ("powerful, clear and passionate", according to Philip Pullman in the Guardian), it offers a compelling sideways glance at the action of Homer's Odyssey. Rather than retelling the story of Odysseus, Geras turns to the tangential events that took place on the island of Ithaka during Odysseus's 20-year absence.
Penelope, her son Telemachus, the citizens of Ithaka, the suitors who vie for her hand and land - all are peripheral characters in the Odyssey itself, but within Ithaka's pages, Geras brings them to vigorous life. Penelope in particular is transformed from the ideal of devoted wife into a vital, physical woman who struggles daily to reconcile her unshakeable conviction that her husband will return with the scepticism - and ultimately the undisguised scorn - of everyone around her.
Geras employs again the techniques that made Troy a resounding success. This story of peripherals is itself told through the eyes of a peripheral character: Klymene, Penelope's young handmaid, whose humble life thrums to the fortunes of Ithaka's first family. She (like Marpessa in Troy) can see the gods and goddesses as they walk among the humans; she watches Aphrodite cast her rose-and-almond-scented spells, sees the fish scales in Poseidon's beard sparkle as he plots his revenge on Odysseus's family, and shrinks from Hades, swathed in a grey cloak, as he waits for the dead.
Ithaka is primarily aimed at young teenagers (issues of liminality, maturity and progression are central), but I'd pretty much defy anyone not to enjoy it – deft touches such as the use of Penelope's tapestry and the dreams of faithful dog Argos to convey Odysseus's back story lift it high above the crowd. It's due out in October – one to look out for.
