Sing to me

Browner (Everything Happens Today) portrays the Trojan War from the perspective of an 11-year-old boy in this stirring novel. Hani is left alone in his home village, his brothers having joined the fighting in Troy followed by their father, who brought along Hani's younger sister, Arinna, in the wake of their mother's death. Believing himself destined to protect Arinna, Hani makes it his mission to bring her home. Despite having little sense of "where he's going or what hidden dangers lie in the way," he confidently sets out with his donkey. He eventually reaches Troy, where he glimpses remnants of the Greeks' Trojan Horse amid scores of dead bodies and toppled buildings. Hani's tragic quest takes a surprising turn, one that gives the boy hope after despair. Along the way, Browner brilliantly conveys the impact of war through its collateral consequences, such as the farms in Hani's village left barren without able-bodied men to tend them. The novel also playfully subverts Homer's heroic tropes; for instance, Hani puts a twist on the opening line of the Odyssey while calling out to the amphibians he plans to catch for food: "Sing to me now, you frogs who hold the shores of the pond!" It's a worthy counterpoint to the classic myths. Agent: Gail Hochman, Brandt & Hochman Literary. (May)

A boy searches for his sister near the end of the Trojan War. Eleven-year-old Hani wonders if he is the last person on Earth. His family and neighbors have recently disappeared, either killed or dragged away to serve in the war. For as long as Hani has lived, war has raged. Now alone, he survives by killing and roasting frogs. A gentle soul, he doesn't like killing harmless creatures, but he needs to eat. He feels a special bond with his 6-year-old sister, Arinna, and they share a secret language. Arinna used to sing them both to sleep with songs that she'd heard from the gods, the songs that would protect children from danger, and now she is gone. He sets out on a journey to find her and bring her home. He believes he is not brave, so his mission calls for "loyalty and pluck." While the setting is not explicitly named, the details--such as bronze daggers, cubit measurements, and the remnants of a wooden horse--firmly situate the tale in the aftermath of the Trojan War. Hani travels with his loyal donkey, Ansa, a source of comfort and wisdom. He does wonder if the thousand or more gods on Mount Hazzi are real; if they were, "why would they destroy the world, then choose him, Hani, the most ignorant person alive, to be the only survivor?" He comes to a burned-out city with its "twisty tangle of human corpses," almost every one of them an old person. This war has been explained to him his whole life, but he still knows nothing. However, he believes in fate, which even the gods are powerless to stop. His own fate is to search for Arinna. Meanwhile, the first sign he sees of life is a dying soldier who opens his eyes. Is he an invader from across the seas, or is he a defender? Hani doesn't know, but he has three choices: He can kill the man, walk away and let him die, or try to slake the poor man's thirst. His decision guides the rest of the plot in this remarkable post-Iliad adventure. Although admittedly ignorant, Hani wisely muses that "love is what holds the world together; even a child knows it, a donkey knows it, a trapped frog knows it." And perhaps more ominously, "Maybe peace is just war taking a rest." But he loves "when the first stars appear, rising freshly washed and sparkling from the sea." An absorbing and powerful story showing the pointlessness of war. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.