A review by _ivi_
House of Names by Colm Tóibín

5.0

"I smiled because I knew that this would be the last episode of happiness I would know in my life, and that it was being played out by my husband, in all his weakness, for as long as possible."

What a beautiful and immensely brutal novel. I must confess I am a sucker for Greek retellings, but Colm Tóibín really did the myths justice. I remember despising the stories of the curse of the House of Atreus as a teen, imagining the Greek gods as too cruel, petty and vengeful. Yet the story here, though still as tragic, was presented so beautifully and tenderly that one imagines the sorrow and grief that set the chain of events.