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
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.
Interesting read but format as ebook challenging
"I have - gasp - never read of Life of Pi. This was actually the first book I have ever ready by Martel, but I knew, going in, that he tends to be a bit more of an experimental writer. This one was no exception. The format is a little jarring for me, because there is the epic poem/story with the actual story of the main protagonist coming together in the footnotes. Also, some of the footnotes are a history lesson or lesson in the Iliad which was interesting. And that is how I will capture my review of this book. It is certainly interesting. And I suspect it would make the subject of a good dissertation in a lot of ways, which is kind of circular since the book is, in itself, kind of a dissertation for the main character as he works out the meaning behind the epic he is unearthing and advocating for. Did I enjoy it? Yes, and no. There were a lot of parts of the story that sucked me in and that I wanted to read more about. But the way they were presented was a bit jarring and pulled me in and out of the story in a way that didn't always work for me. I suspect that this one will get a lot of critical acclaim. And it is a lovely story. Just not a fan of how it is woven together and presented. Which may also have a lot to do with reading this in an e-format vs. a paper copy. I would definitely say if you are going to read this to pick up the book and not the e-book version."
