Schlitz’ book gives an account of the life of Heinrich Schliemann, the infamous figure who discovered – and also destroyed – the ancient city of Troy. It reveals how Schliemann made his fortune, and how he remade the story of his life. Schlitz challenges the veracity of Schliemann’s own biography, and explores the psychology of a man who loved stories so much that "he wanted them to be true" (p. 2). 

One of nine children, and the eldest surviving son, Schliemann’s upbringing was humble. His father was an unpopular Pastor in the German village of Ankershagen, and his mother died when he was nine. As a teenager, he was withdrawn from school to help support his family. Later in life he would paint a more romantic picture of his childhood. He was enthralled by local legends of hidden treasures, and his father’s Christmas gift of a copy of the Iliad filled him with a determination to prove the truth of Homer’s stories. 

The text details how misfortune transformed Schliemann’s life. Contracting tuberculosis saved him from a mundane existence as a grocer’s assistant, and a miraculous escape from a shipwreck off the Dutch coast led him to become a successful merchant and businessman. His incredible proficiency for learning languages enabled him to travel the world for work and pleasure, and the text includes a world map detailing the extensive list of destinations Schliemann visited as he began his foray into the fledgling discipline of archaeology. Schlitz introduces the other players in the story of Troy’s discovery – Frank Calvert, Wilhelm Dörpfeld, and Sophie Schliemann. But the focus remains on the charismatic, contradictory figure of Schliemann himself, who, in spite of his incredible discoveries, was ridiculed by the media, derided by other archaeologists, and is remembered more for his lies than for proving Homer to be true. 

Robert Byrd’s playful line drawings depict key moments from Schliemann’s life, as well as renderings of some of the artefacts he uncovered. The opening full-page illustration highlights the role of fantasy in Schliemann’s life. It depicts him as a small boy imagining the wooden horse and the towers of Troy as a he reads the Iliad, his cat curled up on the couch beside him. Byrd’s illustrations also appear in special sections illuminating the Homeric Question (p. 27), the scientific discoveries of the nineteenth century (pp. 20–21), the history of Troy (pp. 28–29), dating systems (p. 33), and the principles of stratification (pp. 44–45). The text concludes with an annotated bibliography and extensive endnotes. 

In recent years biographies written for children have flourished, offering an alternative kind of storytelling that aims to inspire and educate as well as entertain. The Hero Schliemann engages the reader via accessible language and vivid storytelling, supported by Byrd’s appealing, lighthearted illustrations. On the back cover copy, Schlitz describes her discovery of the figure of Schliemann: "When I began researching Schliemann’s life, I thought, What a story! And it was all true. Then I read more and discovered that some of it wasn’t true. My romantic hero was a mythmaker and a liar." The text celebrates the power of a story to enchant, and Schlitz reveals an awareness that she herself is playing a part in the mythmaking process. In the popular imagination, Heinrich and Sophia Schliemann have taken on the same mythic proportions as Helen, Hector, and Homer himself. 

Furthermore, Schlitz alludes to the mystique of the archaeologist as treasure hunter, linking Schliemann with other pioneers of the discipline, such as Arthur Evans. Yet while glorying in his incredible discoveries at Troy, the reader is encouraged to reflect on the devastating impact of Schliemann’s impetuous and destructive excavation techniques, as well as the way that he amended the story of his discoveries to add to their drama and mystique. "All archaeologists, past and present, work together. Each object is a clue to the past, and archaeologists count on one another to pass on only the right clues. In hedging about exactly where and when the objects were found, Heinrich cheated his colleagues of the opportunity to learn the real history of his treasure." (p. 51).

The story of Sophia wrapping up Priam’s treasure in her shawl and carrying it back to their living quarters, where Schliemann decorated and photographed her in the golden diadem, is so evocative that it is still recounted today. Schlitz writes "this is a good story. It is still found in books, but it is not true." (p. 48). Sophia was not present at the excavation on that day, and it is now believed that Schliemann combined several collections of treasure to make the discovery appear as dramatic as possible. 

Schliemann is not alone in longing for Homer’s myths to be real. Others – both laypeople and scholars – continue to express the same desire. The tales are simply that good; as Schlitz says, they "set the imagination on fire." (p. 4). Attempts to map the voyages of Odysseus and Jason on to the Aegean (or elsewhere in the world), or debates over what the Trojan horse might really have been (a siege engine? an earthquake?) are part of the same impulse. 

Online review at kirkusreviews.com (accessed: March 25, 2019).