Oh wow, this is really a great book: The Trojan War: A New History. I gave it to Sally Wife for her birthday, but after presenting it happened to read a few lines. I was hooked. I finished it in three days--well, maybe four. I was so fascinated that I forgot to affix the usual Post-It notes on the places that particularly fascinated me, so I have no quotes to show how well Mr. Strauss relives the days when the Greeks "burnt the topless towers of Ilium." A lot of it is speculation, of course, but it is convincing speculation, based on forensic and even anecdotal evidence. (Though the Greeks hadn't yet hit upon their rather odd alphabet, their enemies to the southeast were literate, so there actually are some records--if indirect--about events on the Dardanelles 3200 years ago.)
It helps of course if you have read Robert Fagles's great translation of The Iliad, or anyhow George Guidall's recording of it.
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