From homer's trenches to saskatoon: yann martel's unexpected war novel

Yann Martel, the celebrated author of Life of Pi, has unveiled Son of Nobody, a work born from a surprising source: a renewed fascination with Homer’s Iliad. The novel, a reimagining of the Trojan War through the eyes of a forgotten soldier, Psoas, arrives after years of quiet contemplation in the idiosyncratic writing studio—a mere 10ft by 12ft—that Martel shares with his wife, fellow author Alice Kuipers, in Saskatoon, Canada.

A literary spark from an ancient text

Martel’s journey to Son of Nobody began with a simple recommendation. Kuipers suggested Stephen Mitchell’s translation of the Iliad, a foundational text Martel confessed he’d somehow managed to avoid until his fifties. Expecting a “venerable and kind of boring” experience, he instead found himself captivated by the poem's raw intensity and its exploration of life and death—a stark contrast to the realities of contemporary political discourse.