Natalie Haynes brings life to the infamous myth of Medusa with a feminist retelling unlike any other . . .
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.
Witty, gripping, ruthless
*Margaret Atwood 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 Gorgon’s head will take on a new and powerful
resonance as a symbol of the way stories can be warped by time.
Stone Blind acts as a brilliant and compellingly readable
corrective.
*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
*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
*The Times*
Pat Barker, Margaret Atwood and Madeline Miller have all
successfully picked at the seams of the traditionally male take on
these fantastic tales. But Natalie Haynes’s genius, this time with
Stone Blind, her third Greek myth novel, is to not just focus on
the female experience of Greek myth but also to add zest, humour
and more than a little mischief . . . The ride is gripping, funny
and heartbreaking. Love, sorrow, adventure and humour - Stone Blind
has it all
*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*
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
*Red Magazine*
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*
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
*The Spectator*
Haynes is [a] master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing
warm life into some of our oldest stories
*Telegraph*
Haynes is the nation’s great muse
*The Week*
Natalie Haynes is swiftly becoming this generation’s Mary
Renault
*Observer*
With her trademark passion, wit and fierce feminism, Haynes gives
much-needed voice to the silenced women of the Trojan War. Her
thoughtful portraits will linger with you long after the book is
finished
*Madeline Miller on A Thousand Ships*
Haynes is a rock-star mythologist
*Washington Post on A Thousand Ships*
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