Sparrow

For readers of A Little Life, Room and Shuggie Bain as well as The Silence of the Girls and I, Claudius, the deeply moving story of a young Roman slave boy growing up in a brothel. A Sunday Times Book of the Year 'A stunning work of historical imagination . . . masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship' - The Observer 'Sparrow [is] truly unforgettable' - Daily Mail Meet Jacob - aka Sparrow - a boy slave in the Spanish city of New Carthage in the last years of pagan Rome. 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. He spends his days listening to stories told by his beloved 'mother' Euterpe, running errands for her lover the cook, and dodging the blo