Sophia Chrysanthis is in her twenties when the celebrated German Archaeologist, Herr Obermann, seeks her out; he wants a Greek bride who is able to read Homer. Sophia passes his test, and soon she is tying canvas sacking to her legs so that she can kneel on the hard ground in the trench, removing the earth methodically, identifying salient points, lifting out amphorae and bronze vessels without damaging them. Obermann is very good at the art of archaeology - perhaps toos good. Obsessive and intuitive, he is a romantic visionary. Troy is the definitive city lost and found; and Peter Ackroyd brings it electrifyingly to life in this fascinating novel of heroes, truth, fact and fiction.