Gilgamesh

"The mysterious, sinewy surge of his verse [is] thoroughly modern, yet an uncanny evocation of the primeval." -- The Boston Globe "Seamus Heaney isn't the only one intent on making the classics relevant to our times. Mitchell...offers a limpid retelling of this story about absolute power.... Its message of love, loss, and endurance [is] rendered in fresh, forceful language." -- Los Angeles Times "Utterly enthralling reading, thanks to Mr. Mitchell's skill and flair in recasting the ancient text." -- The New York Sun "A flowing, unbroken version that reads as effortlessly as a novel...with startlingly familiar hopes, fears, and lusts. Mitchell...cracks open the lessons in Gilgamesh by rebuilding its clay fragments into a poem easy on the eyes and the transcultural imagination....Vibrant, earnest, unfussily accessible.... The muscular eloquence and rousing simplicity of Mitchell's four-beat line effectively unleash the grand vehemence of the epic's battle scenes, and the characters' ominous visions emerge with uncanny clarity." -- The New York Times Book Review "Beautifully retold and a page-turner in the bargain. Like Seamus Heaney's recent retelling of Beowulf, this book proves that in the right hands, no great story ever grows stale." -- Newsweek