HOUSE OF NAMES

by Colm Toibin (Viking £14.99)

You might wonder whether Aeschylus’s epic, blood- soaked trilogy the oresteia really needed rewriting in novel form, but Colm toibin banishes all doubts with this extraordinary new imagining.

toibin largely follows the same cycle of revenge that destroys the house of Agamemnon after he sacrifices his daughter iphigenia at troy, but it’s the quality of the writing that really impresses: empathetic, full- bodied and steeped in a psychological acuity that brings these ancient characters to life anew.