An Iliad
Alessandro Baricco strips Homer's epic to its human breath, handing the story of Troy to the soldiers, lovers, kings, and slaves who lived inside it. Twenty-one monologues carry the war from the wrath of Achilles through the fall of Hector, each voice immediate and present-tense, the gods quietly written out so that responsibility falls back on the people who actually swing the swords. The result is a slim, propulsive novel that reads aloud beautifully and was in fact composed for performance, a public reading of an ancient story for a modern audience. Without ever betraying the original, Baricco turns the Iliad into something unbearably close, a chronicle of how war seduces men who claim to hate it.
What you might want to know about An Iliad
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
An Italian novelist retells Homer's epic as a series of monologues, with each warrior, lover, and bystander given a short chapter. A theater-friendly Iliad cleared of its gods.
No. An Iliad is a 2004 retelling of Homer's epic by Italian writer Alessandro Baricco, condensing and reframing the Trojan War story for modern readers. Each chapter is narrated by a different character. It is not a literal translation.
Baricco's An Iliad is a novella but has been adapted for stage. A separate, well-known stage play also titled An Iliad by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, based on Robert Fagles's translation, has been performed since 2010 and is unrelated to Baricco's book.
An Iliad was written by Alessandro Baricco, published in 2004 by Vintage International.
An Iliad is 170 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, An Iliad takes most readers 3 to 4 hours to finish.
An Iliad is a standalone novel by Alessandro Baricco, not part of a series.
An Iliad is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
