A violent, bloody epic brimming with endless deaths, The Iliad catalogues the brutality of war; but it is two specific deaths that propel the final chapters of the saga. When the Greek hero Achilles' beloved companion, Patroclus is murdered by the Trojan hero Hector, Achilles' trenchant refusal to fight explodes into hateful rage—not only does he kill Hector, he drags the body behind his chariot and refuses to give it up to the kingdom of Troy for proper burial. David Malouf's Ransom settles into this ancient narrative at this point of grief and anguish—Achilles mourning Patroclus, King Priam mourning his son—and moves beautifully around and within what we know of the characters to illuminate the untold: how did King Priam, himself a survivor of a harsh war, come to command a kingdom locked in a ten-year battle? How did a king convince his queen and sons to let him travel to the heart of the Greek camp, unarmed and with only a commoner to guide him? And how did the king, wounded with grief for his lost son, come to sit at supper with his son's murderer and defiler, sleep under his protection, and return safely home? Malouf's rich novel brings together two men for a moving meditation on grief, loss, and how the two emotions bind us.