Ulysses. James Joyce

A modernist classic, Ulysses is without doubt one of the great masterpieces of the twentieth century. Voted as the first of 100 Great Books of the 20th century.
Loosely modeled on the wanderings of Homer's Ulysses as he journeyed toward wife, son and home in Ithaca, the novel follows the interwoven paths of two of Joyce's most realized character - the young schoolteacher Stephen Dedalus, bitterly estranged from his father, and the middle-aged Dubliner, Leopold Bloom, still grieving for his dead infant son. Over the course of twenty-four hours, their unwitting quest for each other - surrogate son for surrogate father - is enacted against an extraordinary, celebratory portrait of the city of Dublin.