Dystopian Fiction Books Everyone Should Read: Explore The Darker Side of Possible Worlds and Alternative Futures After reading a few other James Hynes novels and thinking that I knew this author's writing ("The Lecturer's Tale, Publish and Perish"), I was absolutely stunned by "Sparrow." It is expertly-crafted at the sentence level, achingly hopeful but bitter in tone, and wholly, brutally compelling as a whole. The wolves, in particular, are brilliantly drawn, with their shifting alliances and divisions drawing them together and pulling them apart as events imposed on them crush their will or cement their unity accordingly. Bob Mortimer wins 2023 Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction with The Satsuma Complex A bleak and brutal story, vividly told by Hynes, who has created a truly unforgettable character in the resilient Sparrow. Daily Mail (UK)

The weakest part of the story was the character of Sparrow himself - even considering the fact that neither he nor the readers know his exact age, I could never tell how old he was supposed to be at any given point. By the time he gets sent “upstairs” to work as a prostitute, he’s described as being at least somewhat sexually mature, so probably around 10ish, but he still thinks like a toddler, always asking dumb questions. “What’s a fugitive, what’s a graveyard”, that sort of thing. Don’t kids normally have their question phase at like 4/5? I can’t remember being this dim when I was 10… As he grows older, Sparrow helps Focaria more in the kitchen and is allowed out on his own to run errands and go to the marketplace. At first he is frightened of the world outside, but he adjusts and becomes an observer of the human foibles he encounters.Until there comes a time when there is the chance of freedom, and since the story is told by an old man who can read and write and lives alone in the province of Britain, we can assume he managed to get away. James Hynes’s debut novel tells the tale of boy born into slavery and sold to a brothel in a provincial port of ancient Spain. When not being told stories by his beloved 'mother' Euterpe, he runs errands for her lover the cook, while trying to avoid the blows of their brutal overseer or the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene. A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the little community that has been his whole world. This book drew a very authentic picture of slavery, even as I admit I cannot really understand it from a modern viewpoint. It was a powerful, graphic story with characters who were not always sympathetic but whose choices were understandable. This book immediately reminded me of a more elevated version of The Wolf Den, though this book fulfilled my desire for more in-depth, well-rounded characters, and it has such rich world-building to boot!

Every character feels invested and whole, even those who perpetuate the suffering of the main protagonists. There are no moustache-twirling villains, no easy to despise psychopaths. Just men of privilege, men with unaccountable power, and men (and women) whose own scars twist their behaviour. 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. Sparrow’s only friend is Euterpe, one of the “wolves” (prostitutes). Euterpe tries to educate and care for Sparrow, but in the world of Helicon there is no place for kindness. The fear of death is ever-present and Euterpe has no power against the brothel manager, Audo. Sparrow tells us that “Audo is a hammer and every problem is a nail”. Now, my main beef with this book is the characterisation of the women. These women are created with an illusion of depth, and it’s disappointing. Hyne's writing was so spot on - it felt like I was right there. But without the faff that some books have when descriptive writing - none of it felt like waffle. Everything added something and added to the atmosphere.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. Melpomene, the senior prostitute and a free woman, inveigles her way into a negotiation with the Patron to run the establishment herself. She offers the women the opportunity to lead a better life within the confines of their harsh existence. Although Melpomene uses Sparrow to help her achieve her ends, she has plans for him: he ends up working alongside the women and becomes a popular attraction.