Sparrow: The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller

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The climax of the novel comes when Euterpe persuades Sparrow to try and flee the city with her. Sparrow is convinced that her plan is doomed to fail, but chooses to go along with her. Sparrow’s fate hangs in the balance as he and Euterpe navigate their escape. I had heard a lot about this book, but wasn't 100% convinced it would be my cup of tea, I thought it may be a bit too literary for me. I could not have been more wrong. I was super wrapped up in the characters from the very beginning.

At 10 years old he was forced to become a "wolf" in the Brothel that he spent his whole life in. His first rape was just so brutal and heartbreaking. At this point you already love this little boy so much and seeing him experience such pain was just so hard. The descriptions of all of his experiences really make you feel like you are experiencing everything with him.

Sparrow tells the story of Jacob, son of no one, last survivor of an abandoned British Roman town. Raised in a brothel on the Spanish coast in the waning years of the Roman Empire, a boy of no known origin creates his own identity. Sparrow gravitates to dissociation, seemingly floating in the air and watching himself going through the motions of the sexual acts he endures at the behest of his clients. The concept of the chosen family is also very important as Sparrow and the wolves work together in a hostile and dangerous environment. Sparrow is a magnificent tale of a boy enduring the very hardest life and yet, somehow, finding a way to love and to be loved. It is worth noting that, as one might expect, there are extensive scenes depicting the harshness of slavery and sexual abuse. The books themes will not be for everyone and, accordingly, trigger warnings are made. A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the women who have been his whole world. As the book drew to a close, my heart broke for all of the characters, and I wanted to give them all a better outcome. With that said, I was conflicted by the ending and was ready to rate the book down for it. Given what the elder Sparrow tells us about his future circumstances, we get very little information on how he actually got there. We don't even know how he learns to read and write! On reflection, I wouldn't necessarily change the ending, but I would let the elder Sparrow pepper us with more information throughout the book on how he got to a place in life where he could write his life story. After getting to know the younger Sparrow so well, I would have liked a more definitive sense of closure.

Für mich ist es unsagbar schwer dieses Buch in Worte zu fassen- vor allem die richtigen Worte zu finden. Die Geschichte wird uns aus Sicht des Mannes, der damals als Junge seinen Lebensweg beginnt erzählt, und das machte es für mich persönlich nur noch schmerzvoller und so greifbar.A bleak and brutal story, vividly told by Hynes, who has created a truly unforgettable character in the resilient Sparrow. Daily Mail (UK) When one of the wolves, Melpomene, takes over the running of the brothel, there is hope that things might change. But for Melpomene “the whole world is a whorehouse” and she presses the other wolves to work even harder. Earning more tips is the only route to freedom. Through the traffic passing in the street, we both gaze across the way at his son among the other bored students, his head nodding, his mouth agape. Nazarius squeezes my shoulder, and I want to tear myself away before he speaks, before he tells me one more time about his son, the scholar, the future aedile. But instead Nazarius says, “He’ll never know what we know.” When not being told stories by his beloved ‘mother’ Euterpe, he runs errands for her lover the cook, dodging the blows of their brutal overseer or the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene. The wolves, named after the muses and coming from across the vast empire, are Sparrow’s surrogate family. They are his mothers and his sisters, his guides in a rough life, his solace from it. When he is not being told stories by his beloved 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. But a hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the little community that has been his whole world.