Stone Blind

Witty, gripping, ruthless – Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale, via X (Twitter)
The rollicking narrative voice that energises Stone Blind … is a voice that feels at once bitingly (post)modern and filled with old wisdom * The Observer *
Stone Blind is an exceptionally powerful retelling of Medusa’s story, an emotional gut punch of a novel. Haynes brilliantly pulls off the feat of seamlessly alternating humour and heartbreak, creating characters that stay with you long after the novel’s end. It is a dazzling achievement – Elodie Harper, author of The Wolf Den trilogy
With this, her third novel based on ancient myth, [Haynes] has found a way of using all her classical erudition and her vivid sense of the ambiguous potency of the ancient stories, while being simultaneously very, very funny * The Guardian *
A fierce feminist exploration of female rage, written with wit and empathy. Haynes makes the classics brutally relevant, and we reckon this one is going to be huge * Glamour *
It is no exaggeration to say that Haynes is the modern embodiment of the best of Homer. She is a proper, classic storyteller, whose linguistic skills and wit will have you hanging on every word * Radio Times *
Stone Blind is inventive and playful … [and] very funny – Antonia Senior * The Times *
Natalie Haynes’s genius is to not just focus on the female experience of Greek myth but also to add zest, humour and more than a little mischief. * Metro *
What makes a monster is the central question in Natalie Haynes’ wry, spry feminist take on the Medusa myth … an earthy, playful yet rage-filled upending of the Greek hero trope * Mail Online *
Natalie Haynes has made a contemporary classic out of a classic … and it should win prizes – Monique Roffey, author of The Mermaid of Black Conch
With wit, humanity and extraordinary imagination, Haynes breathes life and meaning into myths as she has done so brilliantly before (most famously with A Thousand Ships). She also shows that monsters can be divine or mortal. Not all heroes wear capes – and not all villains have snakes * The i *
Haynes’ clever, empathetic writing transforms Medusa from Gorgon into a girl, who’s a victim of the cruel machinations of the gods and of circumstance – Sarra Manning * Red Magazine *
There’s real tenderness in Haynes’s portrait of Medusa, a mortal abomination born into a family of divinities, and the efforts of her immortal Gorgon sisters to protect her from herself – Daisy Dunn * The Spectator *

Natalie Haynes is a writer and broadcaster. She is the author of The Amber Fury, which was shortlisted for the McIlvanney Prize; The Children of Jocasta, a feminist retelling of the Oedipus and Antigone stories; and two non-fiction books, The Ancient Guide to Modern Life and Pandora’s Jar. She has written and presented seven series of the BBC Radio 4 show Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics. In 2015, she was awarded the Classical Association Prize for her work in bringing Classics to a wider audience. Her third novel, A Thousand Ships, was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2020. Stone Blind is her fourth novel.

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