The fall of Troy : a novel / Peter Ackroyd.

Middle-aged German bachelor of means seeks mail-order Greek bride to assist in the archaeological search for the lost city of Troy. At first glance, the premise of this novel requires a stretch of the imagination. But in the hands of an experienced writer such as Ackroyd (The Lambs of London), all of the sights and sounds and events are entirely plausible. Without wasting space on descriptive prose, the dialog paints the landscape and propels the action of the relatively few characters that inhabit the story. Central is Herr Heinrich Obermann, the German archaeologist and new bridegroom, who is both boisterous and audacious in a Teddy Roosevelt meets P.T. Barnum kind of way. Packed with references to the legends of the gods and goddesses, this unexpectedly humorous novel moves quite rapidly while at the same time slowly unearthing a mystery. Like an antiquity that might be found among the stones, this book is a small gem in the impressive pantheon of Ackroyd's work, which encompasses fiction, nonfiction, biography, and poetry.