I read this book many years ago, and it gave me a new perspective on the Odyssey. Tim Severin is an adventurer, but here he is searching for a reality behind the old myths. He does it in a very convincing as well as entertaining manner. As the Iliad was brought from the sphere of myths back to history by the discovery of the ruins of Troy, Tim Severin's re-tracing of a route from Troy to Ithaca, at least in my mind has turned the Odyssey into a historical event.