"Grow up alongside Sparrow in the Roman Empire, live and breathe and become a part of his very existence in this moving and oh-so eloquent tale."
Full of heartache, and wonder, this is a story that sits small, but flies out into the world to take on epic proportions. Jacob, a slave in an abandoned British town, tells the story of his life as Sparrow, whose first memories are of a brothel in Spain towards the end of the Roman Empire. As his view of the world around him widens, as he learns the cruelties that await, it is the smallest of things, the moments shared, the love shown, that produce a glow of hope around which his spirit rises. James Hynes creates a world that shouts with urgent vibrancy, with colour, hate, love, indifference. He highlights the choices made, even if it would appear there are none, where the imagination can travel, even if there is nowhere to go. This is as much about the women surrounding Sparrow as it is the small boy as he grows up. The most essential details of life surrounded my thoughts, clustered into knots, fighting to be heard. The setting feels so very real, and although the historical location sits so firm, and absolute, and true, the essence of the humanity within could be anywhere, at at any time. The boy Sparrow has taken up lodging in my heart, I ache, truly ache for the life he has lived, the story that Jacob tells. The ending sent a spiral of emotion shivering through me, and the echoes still remain. Chosen as a LoveReading Star Book and Liz Pick for its month of publication, Sparrow is a stunningly powerful, beautifully sorrowful novel, it stands as a warning and yet is full of hope.
