Oedipus on the Road - Henry Bauchau

In a novel of genius, Henry Bauchau gives us the unwritten chapter of the Oedipus story and joins an elite pantheon of those––Sophocles, Freud, Cocteau––who have brought the myth enduring significance.
Oedipeus on the Road is a unique, stunningly beautiful rendering of the journey that leads Oedipus from Thebes to Colonus––and from a world of exile to one of legend. This is the chapter that Sophocles never wrote, the redemptive passage of the fallen, blinded king to his final––this time glorious––encounter with destiny.
Bauchau finds Oedipus stranded outside the walls of his former palace, eye sockets and soul still bleeding, and leads him––along with his daughter Antigone and the seductive shepherd-bandit Clitus, whose loyalty to the pair probably has less to do with his allegiance to Oedipus than his intentions toward his daughter––through a geographical and spiritual landscape littered with the physical, artistic, and mental rites of passage that separate Oedipus from immortality.
Oedipus on the Roadis a triumph of erudition folded into a dazzling feat of textured and lyrical storytelling reminiscent of Mary Renault, Umberto Eco, or Roberto Calasso. It is also a richly layered modern novel, impressive for its light touch and deftness with character and plot.