Stone Blind

Medusa is the only mortal in a family of gods, the one Gorgon sister who changes and can be hurt. When Poseidon assaults her in Athene's temple, the goddess punishes not him but her: snakes for hair, and a gaze that turns every living thing to stone. To protect her beloved sisters, Medusa withdraws into the shadows, until Perseus sets out to fetch a Gorgon's head.

Natalie Haynes, classicist and former comedian, turns a myth usually told from the hero's side into something witty, furious and tender, giving the monster back her humanity and the gods their pettiness. Longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction, it suits anyone who loved Circe or Haynes's own A Thousand Ships, and leaves you seeing the old story with clear, angry eyes.