Sparrow tells the story of Jacob, son of no one, last survivor
of an abandoned British Roman town. Raised in a brothel on
the Spanish coast in the waning years of the Roman Empire,
a boy of no known origin creates his own identity.
He is Sparrow, who sings without reason and can fly from
trouble.
His world is a kitchen, the herb-scented garden, then the
loud and dangerous tavern, and finally the mysterious
upstairs where the 'wolves' - prostitutes of every ethnic
background from the far reaches of the empire - do their
mysterious business. When not being told stories by his
beloved 'mother' Euterpe, he runs errands for her lover the
cook, while trying to avoid the blows of their brutal overseer
or the machinations of the chief wolf, Melpomene.
A hard fate awaits Sparrow, one that involves suffering,
murder, mayhem, and the scattering of the little community
that has been his whole world.

James Hynes is the author of several books including Sparrow, Next, Kings of Infinite Space, The Lecturer's Tale, Publish and Perish, and The Wild Colonial Boy. He lives in Austin, Texas.