<p><b>&lsquo;Masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship&rsquo; - <i>The Observer</i><br>'Utterly engrossing, vivid and honest' - Emma Donoghue<br><br>Meet Jacob &ndash; aka Sparrow &ndash; a boy slave in a brothel in the Spanish city of New Carthage in the last years of pagan Rome. </b><br><br>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 &lsquo;wolves&rsquo; &ndash; prostitutes and slaves from every corner of the empire &ndash; conduct their business.<br><br>He spends his days listening to stories told by his beloved &lsquo;mother&rsquo; Euterpe, running errands for her lover the cook, and dodging the blows of their brutal overseer and the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene. A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering, murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the women who have been his whole world.<br><br>Through meticulous research and bold imagination, James Hynes brings the entirety of the Roman city of Carthago Nova &ndash; its markets, temples, taverns of the lowly and mansions of the rich &ndash; to vivid, brutal life. Walking through lost places, hearing forgotten voices, this story belongs to the slave class that made an infamous empire function.<br><br>This is a powerfully affecting and memorable character.<br>This is <i>Sparrow</i>.</p>