Grendel is a 1971 novel by John Gardner, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the point of view of the monster. It’s excellent, but if you’ve picked it up thinking “ooh, I like axes and fighting monsters, and it’s a fantasy masterwork – this’ll be a rip-roaring read!” you may be somewhat surprised, and possibly disappointed. It’s a bit literary, as Gardner uses the myth to explore existentialism; in his own words, “What happened in Grendel was that I got the idea of presenting the Beowulf monster as Jean-Paul Sartre, and everything that Grendel says Sartre in one mood or another has said.”

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