Anne Carson

A stunning re-creation of Euripides's famous play, with illustrations by the author, make this a gorgeous facsimile edition, reminiscent of her classic book-in-a-box, Nox

H of H Playbook

'Fans of Anne Carson, rejoice!... Carson's depth of knowledge about Greek mythology coupled with her poetic sensibility and illustrations is sure to breathe new life into this oft-told story.' Lit Hub H of H Playbook is an explosion of thought, in drawings and language, about a Greek tragedy called Herakles by the 5th-century BC poet Euripides. In myth Herakles is an embodiment of manly violence who returns home after years of making war on enemies and monsters (his famous "Labours of Herakles") to find he cannot adapt himself to a life of peacetime domesticity. He goes berserk and murders his whole family. Suicide is his next idea. Amazingly, this does not happen. Due to the intervention of his friend Theseus, Herakles comes to believe he is not, after all, indelibly stained by his own crimes, nor is his life without value. It remains for the reader to judge this redemptive outcome. "I think there is no such thing as an innocent landscape," said Anselm Kiefer, painter of forests grown tall on bones.

Imie Kent-Muller

Prashant Prasad

it’s always an experience reading anne carson and this one was very jarring. something made between the stars but still of this world (even if an older, more melodramatic world). a world of red. i love her so much 


“your gods crafted a soul too big for the space of life they give you to live in”


“i cannot rise. too heavy with filth and sin.”
“give me your hand.”
“i’ll stain you.”
“i’ll take it.”

H of H Playbook

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