O! Enkidu! by Eric Farnsworth

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The Other Story of the Epic of Gilgamesh

In the oldest recorded story of the Western world, a wild man is created by the gods to bring down the most powerful king the world had ever seen. And in that tale the wild man, Enkidu, is instead “civilized” and helps the king increase his power.

That’s the story told by the scribes, anyway. But there’s another story here. And in O! Enkidu!, Eric Farnsworth tells us that story with a compelling simplicity evocative of Le Guin and Hemingway.

(This is for the print editions. For the Kindle version, use this link.)

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The Other Story of the Epic of Gilgamesh

In the oldest recorded story of the Western world, a wild man is created by the gods to bring down the most powerful king the world had ever seen. And in that tale the wild man, Enkidu, is instead “civilized” and helps the king increase his power.

That’s the story told by the scribes, anyway. But there’s another story here. And in O! Enkidu!, Eric Farnsworth tells us that story with a compelling simplicity evocative of Le Guin and Hemingway.

(This is for the print editions. For the Kindle version, use this link.)

Eric Farnsworth

Eric Farnsworth isn’t a writer.

He isn’t much of a bicycle mechanic

or gardener or welder either, for that matter.

But still he does those things.

He and his wife Jean live in Kansas and dance tango.

  • As hunter-gatherers weave between birdcalls and boulders, the city reaches for one wild young man. He enters its gate and gains a new self. Lucid and confident, this legend of love and betrayal moves us into its dream-flight. Desire has a ritual; grief, a flavor; determination, a knife.

    — Tucker Lieberman, author of Enkidu Is Dead and Not Dead / Enkidu está muerto y no lo está

    Eric Farnsworth shows us the Epic of Gilgamesh on a human scale through Enkidu’s story, illuminating the foundations of our current world to suggest what we might create instead. Superb and highly original, O! Enkidu! is a conversational and poetic page-turner that will stay with you long after the last page.

    — Caryn Mirriam-Goldberg, past Kansas Poet Laureate and author of The Magic Eye

  • Publisher : Sphinx
    Published : 8 July, 2025
    Formats : Hardcover (Casebound), Paperback (Perfect bound), EPUB, Kindle
    Pages : 158
    Size : 5.5 in x 8.5 in or 140 mm x 216 mm
    ISBN (Hardcover) : 9781915952417
    ISBN (Paperback) : 9781915952400
    ISBN (EPUB) : 9781915952424