Son of Nobody

This novel unfolds in two parallel texts: The Psoad and Harlow’s footnotes. How did this structure—scholarly edition innovatively applied to fiction—affect your experience of the book? Which parallel moments or characters—Psoas and the Trojan war on one hand, Harlow and his own life on the other—were most effective?

What kind of man is Harlow Donne, the narrator? How did he affect your experience of the novel?

This book inhabits the world of ancient Greek epic poetry. How does it comment on and question the Homeric tradition of The Iliad and The Odyssey, particularly in terms of social class? How did it change the way you think about those iconic texts?

Harlow’s narration is often like listening to a friend who’s an expert on ancient Greek life and culture share his insights and knowledge. What did you learn that most charmed or fascinated you?

This book differs significantly from Martel’s Life of Pi, but both are explorations of storytelling. “This is not only a story … but the story of a story,” Martell/Harlow writes. If you have read that previous novel, how do the two books do this?

“It is my argument that the heroes of the Epic Cycle, in this case Psoas of Midea, created the space for…Jesus of Nazareth…the other half of the profoundly contradictory Western character, a character able both to hate and to love with unchecked passion.” How does this Christian theme play out over the course of the novel?

“I failed you as a father, Helen, and I failed your mother as a husband.” Do you agree with Harlow’s heartbreaking conclusion? Is Gail justified in whispering, “Don’t come back,” as Harlow leaves for Oxford?

In what ways does Psoas’s descent into horrible rage and violence reflect Harlow’s own descent into a hell of anger, shame, and grief?

“History, however true, needs interpreting, and fiction, however invented, arises from life and reflects it.” The book explores how the Trojan War and the life of Jesus have transcended the facts we know about them through our richly poetic stories about them. Did this enrich your sense of what profound truth is and where we find it?

“Life is a matter of radiance and simplicity, and the challenge of life is to remain within that radiance and simplicity.” How does this epiphany, which Harlow had as a young man and which sparked his love of Ancient Greece, relate to the novel as a whole?

Son of Nobody demystifies and humanizes the Epic tradition, suggesting that each of us is the hero of our life story. Was this an illuminating prism through which to view yourself and your life?

The novel ends with Helen asking for the story “about the broken pot” and begins, “Once there was a clay pot and it fell and broke.” How does this circularity affect the meaning and experience of the book?