Aeneid, Books VII-XII by Virgil trans. By David Hadbawnik

The second, and concluding volume, of David Hadbawnik's radical new translation of the Aeneid comes with a phalanx of images — grayscale in this paperback edition — by Omar Al-Nakib. The second half of Virgil's almost-completed epic on the founding of Rome is famously blood-soaked, with battle after battle, and with titanic heroes — of a decidedly Homeric kind — fighting for their honour and for the continued existence of their cities and their people. As with Homer, the capricious gods continually meddle, but Aeneas wins through in the end, his sword dripping with blood.